LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

Had 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION 



A MANUAL OF 

YOCAL TRAINING IN HIGH SCHOOLS, NORMAL 

SCHOOLS, AND ACADEMIES 



BY 

JOHN SWETT 

PRINCIPAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO GIRLS' HIGH AND NORMAL SCHOOL 

EX-STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, STATE OF 

CALIFORNIA ; AUTHOR OF " METHODS OF TEACHING " 




NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1886 



TM4-" 1 



Copyright, 1884, by A. L. Bancroft & Co. 



PREFACE. 



This book is not an elaborate treatise, designed for special teach- 
ers of elocution, but a drill-book of essentials for use by teachers 
that do not make elocution a specialty. In most High and Normal 
schools, and in the advanced Grammar grades, the curriculum is so 
crowded that there is no time for the special training given by 
professional teachers of elocution to select classes of private pupils. 

The time generally allotted to reading and elocution seldom ex- 
ceeds that allowed for vocal music— perhaps one or two hours a 
week. Hence the successful training of large classes involves a 
great deal of concert drill; and this requires the use of a suitable 
manual of principles, directions, and drill exercises. 

This treatise owes its existence to the difficulties met with in 
the management of a very large High school, including a post- 
graduate Normal department, in which an honest effort has been 
made to secure a fair degree of attention to school reading and 
elocution. 

Fully realizing the limitations of teachers in similar schools, I 
have endeavored to keep within the bounds of what it is possible 
to accomplish without making elocution a hobby. The salient 
points of this hand-book are as follows 

1. It includes only what it is possible to take up without material 
interference with the ordinary school curriculum. 

2. It embraces only what pupils of average ability are capable of 
comprehending and mastering. 

8. It includes a fair outfit of principles and practice for those 
who intend to become teachers. 

4. It can be effectively used by teachers who are not specialists 
in elocution. 



IV SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

5. It contains clear and concise statements of principles and 
rules. 

6. It is characterized by the copiousness and freshness of the 
illustrative drill-examples. 

It was my good fortune, more than thirty years ago, to be a 
student under that most critical and scholarly elocutionist and Nor- 
mal-school instructor, Professor William Russell; and it is natural 
that I should follow in the steps of my revered instructor. I am also 
indebted to many excellent manuals on elocution for principles and 
examples that constitute the common stock of matter on this sub- 
ject. 

I am under obligations to the publishers of the works of Ameri- 
can authors for permission to make short extracts from their pub- 
lications, and in particular, to Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for extracts 
from Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Lowell, and Emerson. 

JOHN SWETT. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. ORTHOPHONY AND ORTHOEPY. 

I. Introductory Hints and Directions . . . . .11 

II. Vowel Sounds 15 

III. Consonant Sounds 35 

IV. Classification of Elementary Sounds 39 

V. Orthoepy 45 



PART II. PRINCIPLES IN ELOCUTION. 

CHAPTER I. EMPHASIS, PAUSES, AND INFLECTIONS. 

I. Emphasis .......... 57 

II. Pauses 64 

i. Grammatical Pauses 65 

II. Rhetorical Pauses ....... 65 

in. Rules for Rhetorical Pauses 69 

iv. Emphatic Pauses .73 

III. Inflection 75 

i. The Rising Inflection 82 

II. The Falling Inflection . . . . ... 95 

in. Inflection of the Parenthesis . . . . .109 

iv. The Circumflex Inflection Ill 

v. The Monotone 119 

vi. Examples of Pauses, Emphasis, and Inflection . . 128 

CHAPTER II. FORCE AND STRESS. 

I. Force of Voice 141 

I. Very Soft Force 144 

II. Soft or Subdued Force 144. 

in. Moderate Force 147 

iv. Loud Force . . 149 

v. Very Loud or Declamatory Force . . . .151 

II. Stress of Voice . . 155 

i. Radical Stress . . . . . . . .155 

ir. Median Stress 165 

in. Vanishing Stress 172 

iv. Thorough Stress 175 

v. Compound Stress 180 

vi. Intermittent Stress 181 

(v) 



VI 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



I. 
II. 

III. 
IV. 
V. 



I. 
II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 



CHAPTER III. MOVEMENT. 

Moderate Movement . . . . . . . .187 

Fast Movement . . 189 

Very Fast Movement 191 

Slow Movement 194 

Very Slow Movement . . . . . . . . 195 

CHAPTER IV. PITCH OF VOICE. 

'Introductory . 199 

Concert Drill 200 

Faults . . " 201 

Examples of Middle Pitch 201 

Examples of High Pitch . 203 

Examples of Low Pitch . . . . . . 209 

Examples of Very Low Pitch 211 



I. 

II. 
III. 
IV. 

V. 
VI. 



CHAPTER V. QUALITY OF VOICE. 



Pure Tone 
. The Orotund 
. Aspirated Quality 

Guttural Quality 



216 
220 
230 
237 



The Falsetto 238 

The Semitone 239 



CHAPTER VI. MODULATION AND STYLE OF EXPRESSION. 



I. Modulation . . * 

II. The Reading of Poetry . 

III. Imitative Reading . 

IV. Exercises in Modulation 

V. Dialect Reading and Personation 



245 
248 
255 
259 

262 



PART III. MISCELLANEOUS SELECTIONS. 

SECTION I. PROSE SELECTIONS. 



1. 


Elocutionary Training 


. 


277 


2. 


Good Reading 


. John S. Hurt 


279 


3. 


The Music of the Human Voice 


. Pmf. Wm. Russell 




4. 


The Art of Reading 


. Dr. Bush 


2-1 


5. 


On Learning by Heart 


Lush ingt on 


289 


6. 


School Libraries 






7. 


Poems 


Oliver Wendell Holmes 





SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



Vll 



8. Scrooge and Marley 

9. Defense of Poetry . 

10. Falstaff . 

11. Wealth . 

12. The Astronomer's Vision 

13. Education 

14. Mathematics and Physics 



. , Charles Dickens 

William Ellery Channing 

Henry Giles 

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Professor Huxley 
. Herbert Spencer 



288 
293 
296 
298 
300 
302 
304 



SECTION II. PROSE DECLAMATIONS. 



1. Character of True Eloquence . 






. Daniel Webster 307 


2. National Greatness . 






John Bright 308 


3. The Passing of the Rubicon 






. ' . Knowlcs 309 


4. Our Duties to Our Country 






. Daniel Webster 310 


5. The American War . 






. Lord Chatham 311 


6. Freedom . . . 






Col. E. D. Baker 312 


7. The Voices of the Dead . 






. Orville Dewey 313 


8. G rattan's Reply to Mr. Corry 






.314 


9. Supposed Speech of John Adams 




. Daniel Webster 315 


10. The Constitution and the Union 




. Daniel Webster 317 


11. The Constitution 




. Daniel Webster 317 


12. Duties of American Citizens 






. Daniel Webster 318 


13. Labor. . . . . 






Orville Deiccy 319 


14. The Future of America . 






.Daniel Webster 320 


15. Patriotism 






. T. F. Meagher 321 


16. The Fourth of July . 






. Daniel Webster 322 


17. True Greatness 






Thomas Starr King 323 


18. The Normans . 






Frederick P. Tracy 325 


19. Washington's Birthday . 






. Daniel Webster 326 


20. Nations and Humanity . 






. Geo. W. Curtis 327 


21 . Character of Washington 






. Phillips 328 


22. Bunker Hill Monument . 






. Daniel Webster 329 


23. The Birthday of Washington 






. Rufus Choate 331 


24. The National Clock 






Thomas Starr King 332 


25. Free Schools . 






Horace Mann 333 


26. The Ballot 






. E. H. Chapin 334 


27. Educational Power . 






. 335 


28. Schools and Teachers . • 






337 


29. Elements of the American Government 


. Daniel Webster 338 


SECTION III. RECITATION 


S Al 


sTD 1 


HEADINGS: POETRY. 



1. The Crowded Street 

2. The Builders . 



William Cullcn Bryant 340 
. H. W. Longfellow 341 



Vlll 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



3. 


Psalm of Life . . . . 


II. W. Longfellow 


342 


4. 


Apostrophe to the Ocean . 


Lord Byron 


344 


5. 


Battle of Waterloo . 


Lord Byron 


346 


6. 


Santa Filomena 


II. W. Longfellow 


347 


7. 


The Death Struggle 


Sir Walter Scott 


349 


8. 


Sandal phon .... 


II. W. Longfellow 


350 


9. 


The Old Continentals 


McMastcrs 


352 


10. 


The Winds .... 


William Cull en Bryant 


354 


11. 


The Day is Done 


. H. W. Longfellow 


356 


12. 


The Battlefield 


William Cullcn Bryant 


357 


13. 


Hymn to Mont Blanc 


. Cob i 


359 


14. 


Morning Hymn 


John Milton 


362 


15. 


Thanatopsis .... 


William Cullcn Bryant 


363 


16. 


Gray's Elegy .... 


. 


366 


17. 


Daniel Webster 


Oliver Wendell Holmes 


371 


18. 


St. Augustine's Ladder . 


II. W. Longfellow 


373 


19. 


King Out, Wild Bells . 


. Tennyson 


375 


20. 


Summer Rain .... 


James Russell Lowell 


376 


21. 


Hymn to the North Star 


William Cullcn Bryant 


377 


22. 


The American Flag 


Drake 


379 


23. 


The Chambered Nautilus 


Oliver Wendell Holmes 


3S1 


24. 


Kentucky Belle . 


Constance F. Woolson 


3S2 


25. 


The Cliarcoal Man . 


Troicbridgc 


389 


26. 


Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hil 


I . . 0. W. Holmes 


391 



PART I. 



PART I. 

ORTHOPHONY AND ORTHOEPY. 



SECTION I. 

INTRODUCTORY HINTS AND DIRECTIONS. 

1. As correct pronunciation is an essential of good 
reading, it is important that pupils should acquire at 
the outset a thorough knowledge of the elementary 
sounds of the English language, and that they should 
be trained to a ready command of the organs of speech. 

2. The melody of our mother-tongue depends in a 
great measure on the fullness and purity with which 
the vowel sounds are given. The most marked provin- 
cialisms in our country consist chiefly in the peculiar 
shades of sound given to certain vowels. 

3. In high schools and normal schools, if anywhere, 
critical attention ought to be given to pronunciation. 
It is desirable that pupils should become familiar with 
the diacritical marks of the dictionary in order that 
they may be able to find, by themselves, the correct 
pronunciation of any word. 

4. It is the object of the following lessons to train 
(1) the ear to the correct sound ; (2) the voice to distinct 
enunciation; and (3) the eye to the use of diacritical 
marks. . '* 

(ii) 



12 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

I. Hints to Teachers. 

1. In all short concert drill exercises, require pupils 
to stand, and to stand erect. Let the concert drill he 
preceded by a breathing exercise. 

2. Insist upon it that pupils hold the book properly 
in the left hand, high enough to bring the head erect, 

3. In the more difficult drill exercises, the teacher 
should first read the examples, requiring pupils to repeat 
in concert. To some extent, elocution must be taught 
by imitation. 

4. The true economy of time in vocal culture, as in 
vocal music, consists in training large numbers together. 
The concert drill lessons may be given to two or three 
hundred pupils in the assembly hall as effectively as to 
a single class in the recitation room. 

5. The concert drill in phonic spelling is designed to 
give pupils the full command of their vocal organs, and 
also to secure accurate articulation, enunciation, and 
pronunciation. At first, it may be desirable for the 
teacher to lead the class, giving every sound clearly, 
forcibly, and distinctly. 

6. The grouped lists of words illustrating the vowel 
sounds should be pronounced distinctly and forcibly by 
the teacher, then by the class in concert, and finally, 
by individual pupils. The monosyllables in these lists 
should be spelled by sound, first by the teacher, next 
by the class in concert, and, finally, by individual pupils. 

7. Insist upon it that pupils practice every lesson, after 
it lias been read in school, at home, by themselves. 

8. Impress upon pupils the fact that good reading, 
like vocal music, requires long-continued practice. 

9. Insist upon it that pupils, when reading, shall raise 
their eyes from the book when approaching the end of 
a sentence, and repeat the last five or ten words lock- 
ing directly at the teacher or the class. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 13 

II. Hints to Pupils. 

1. Stand erect when you read, and hold the book in 
your left hand, high enough to bring the head erect. 

2. By frequent inhalations, keep your lungs well filled 
with air. 

3. Eead loud enough to be easily heard by every mem- 
ber of your class. If possible, look over the advance 
lesson before the hour of class drill. 

4. After the class drill at school, read each lesson by 
yourself at home. You can become a good reader only 
by patient and persevering practice. 

5. If you have any marked faults in reading, you 
must endeavor to correct them by self-culture out of 
school. 

6. Enter into the spirit of whatever you read, and 
read it so as to convey that spirit to those who listen. 

7. Think about the meaning of what you read. Eefer 
to the dictionary for the definition of any word you do 
not fully comprehend, or for the pronunciation of any 
word with which you are not familiar. 

8. Listen attentively to the reading of your teacher, 
or of the best readers in the class, and try to imitate 
their style of reading. 

9. Train yourself to the habit of raising your eyes 
from the book to look at the teacher or the class. It 
is a matter of politeness to look at those to whom you 
speak, or to whom you read. As you approach the end 
of a sentence, glance your eye along the words in ad- 
vance of the tongue, and then complete the sentence 
without looking on the book. It is a good plan to 
practice this by yourself before a mirror. 

10. Endeavor to become so familiar with the diacrit- 
ical marks that you can find out, for yourself, from the 
dictionary, the pronunciation of any word without re- 
ferring to the kev, the table of sounds, or the teacher. 



14 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

III. Preliminary Breathing Exercises. 

Concert drill exercises in articulation anal pronunciation 
should he preceded hy short breathing exercises. T 
may he conducted in a great variety of ways, of which 
only a few are here indicated. The length of time in 
inhaling or exheding may he regulated hy the rise or fall 
of the teachers hand. 

1. Stand erect ; feet firm ; body braced ; shoulders well 
back; arms akimbo. 

2. Inhale slowly through the nostrils for five seconds ; 
exhale slowly through the nostrils for five seconds. 
Eepeat five times. Regulate the inhaling and exhaling 
by the rise and fall of the hand. In inhaling, fill the 
lower part of the lungs and do not elevate the shoulders. 

3. Take a similar exercise, prolonging the time, first 
to ten seconds, next to fifteen seconds, and finally to 
twenty seconds. 

4 Inhale ; exhale slowly, giving, in a soft whisper, 
the sound of "Ah!" prolonged for live seconds; ten 
seconds ; as long as possible. 

5. Inhale; exhale slowly, giving the sound of long o, 
in pure tone, prolonged for five seconds; next for ten 
seconds ; then foi fifteen seconds ; and finally, as long 
as possible. 

G- Inhale; exhale slowly, giving for ten seconds the 
sound of long e ; of Italian a ; of long oo. 

7. Inhale ; repeat, in monotone, the long vowels, a, r, i, 
o, u, until the breath is exhausted. 

8. Inhale ; count, with one breath, to 10 ; next, to 20 ; 
then, to 30. 

9. Repeat, in one breath, the letters of the alphabet. 

10. Inhale slowly; exhale slowly, giving the sound of 
liquid I prolonged for five seconds; ten seconds: fifteen 
seconds ; twenty seconds ; next, the sound of m ; of n ; 
of r. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



15 



SECTION" II. 

VOWEL SOUNDS OB VOCALS. 

I. Table of Diacritical Markings. 

I. PHONIC MARKS OF VOCALS. 



Macron. 


Breve. 


Circumflex. 


Two dots, 


One dot. 


Wave or 


— 


< y 


/\ 


•• 


• 


Tilde. - 


ale 


at 


air 


arm, all 


ask, what 




eve, they 


end 


where 






her 


Ice, by 


it, lynx 




pique 




sir 


old 


on 


or 


prove 


son, wolf 




moon 


book 










use 


U P 


urge 


rule 


pull 





II. EQUIVALENT vocals or substitutes. 



a — o 


what, not 


6 = ii 


done, 


sun 


e = a 


they, day 


0, U — 00 


move, 


rule, school 


i = e 


sir, her 


0, U = 00 


wolf, 


pull, wool 


e = a 


there, care 


y- 1 


rhyme, 


time : 


i = e 


pique, weak 


y = i 


hymn, 


whim 


b = & 


or, all 









III. MARKINGS OF SUBVOCALS AND ASPIRATES. 



9, chr^s, sh 


c,ent, 


eliaige 


§ = z 


]"§, ro§e 


■e, -eh-k 


-eake, 


a-ehe 


5h, vocal 


fhis, fhat 


g, hard 


go, 


get 


n = ng 


ink, wink 


fc> —J 


gem, 


age 


x = gz 


example 



16 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION, 



II. Illustrations of Vocals. 

i. The long sound of a. 

Marked with a macron, thus — a. The equivalents of 
long a are also included. Avoid prolonging the vanish- 



ing e sound, thus — ma 


-eed for made. 




age 


day 


break 


great 


gauge 


pale 


gay 


steak 


straight 


yea 


aid 


may 


deign 


weight 


neic/h 

— o 


paid 


way 


reign 


freight 

— o 


sleigh 




WORDS OFTEN MISPRONOUNCED. 




a/re a 


ra/dix 




prai'rie a'pri cot 


na'ked 


ra'tion 




■eais'son ap pa 


ra'tus 


mayor 


pa/tron 




gla'mour maelstrom 


ma'tron 


pastry 




hein'ous pa tri 


otic 


ma/cron 


sa'chem 




pa/tri ot va'ri c 


5 gat ed 



II. Italian or open a. 

Marked with two dots over it, thus — a. Avoid the 
provincialism of haf for half, laf for laugh, etc. 



art 


-calf 


palm 


ah! 


gaunt 


launch 


are 


half 


psalm 


bah! 


haunt 


staunch 


arm 


halves 


salve 


paths 


jaunt 


laugh 


alms 


-calves 


lath 


aunt 


taunt 


quiilms 


balm 


bath 


gape 


daunt 


ciaunch zouave 


-calm 


path 


wrath 


flaunt 


haunch 


hearth 




WORDS OFTEN 


MISPRONOUNCED. 




dauntless 


jaun'dice 


siiun' 


ter 


Col o ra'do 


guii'va 




laun'dry 


jiiunt 


fj 


Ne va'da 


gualio 




laugh'ter 


pi alio 


Mon ta'na 


gauntlet 




lla'ma 


so pr 


a'no 


Tu la're 


haimt'eri 




pla'za 


ft mi 


le 


Si» la'no 



. SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 17 

in. The broad sound of a. 

Marked with two dots under it, thus — a. Avoid the 
two extremes: (1) That of giving a the sound of short 
o, as 611 for awl, etc. (2) That of making a equal to 
two syllables, as aVul for all, caw'ul for call, etc. 



ball 


■caught 


chalk 


al'der 


faucet 


tall 


ought 


talk 


al'ways 


cal'drpn 


drawl 


brought 


stalk 


au'ger 


falchion 


crawl 


thought 


Qauze 

o.. 


-caucus 


pal'try 


sprawl 


groat 


haul 


saucer 


or'der 



iv. The short sound of a. 

Marked with a breve, thus — a. Avoid giving short a, 
as in at, the sound of intermediate «, as in ask, or of 



Italian 


a, as in alms. 


Say and, not and; 


an'swer, not 


an'swer 


etc. 








and 




an'swer 


pat'ent 


ration al 


bade 




bar'rel 


pag'eant 


rail'le ry 


catch 




har'row 


rath'er 


sat'ir ist 


plant 




mar'ry 


nation al 


suav'i ty 


plaid 




nar'row 


pat'ron age 


tap'est ry 



V. Sound of a as in care. 

Marked with a circumflex, thus — a. Avoid the two 
extremes : (1) That of giving it the sound of Italian «, 
as char for chair, thar for there, etc. (2) That of long 
a, as ca'er for care, tha'er for there, a'er for air, etc. 



air 


swear 


there 


pare 


par'ent 


dare 


square 


where 


pair 


fair'y 


rare 


wear 


their 


fare 


char'y 


fair 


hare 


hair 


lair 


scarcely 


bear 


pear 


heir 


prayer 


scar^i ty 



18 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION 



vi. Intermediate a, as in ask. 

Marked with a dot over it, thus — a. This is a medium 
sound between Italian a and short a. Avoid the two 
extremes : (1) That of Italian a, as farst for fast, darnce 
for dance, etc. (2) That of short a, as ask for ask, dance 
for dance, after for after, etc. 

•chant dance 
chaff daft 



ask 

ant 

aft 

bask 

basque 

brass 

blast 

-easqUe 



-chance 

cast 

■class 

craft 

■clasp 

■eask 



draft 

draught 

fast 

flask 

glass 

grass 



graft 

grant 

glance 

gasp 

grasp 

hasp 

haft 

last 



lance 

mass 

mast 

mask 

pass 

past 

pant 

prance 



quaff 
raft 

rasp 
si l aft • 
staff 

skint 

task 

trance 



I. WORDS OFTEN MISPRONOUNCED. 

In all these words be careful to give a its intermediate 
sound as in ask, not the short sound as in and. 



after 


fast'er 


mas'ter 


pass'port 


bas'ket 


fast'est 


mas'tiff 


raft'er 


eas'ket 


glass'y 


pastime 


slant'ing 


■elass'es 


grass'y 


pas'tor 


task'work 


-eraft'y 


lasting 


plas'ter 


vast'ness 


■erafts'man 


massive 


pasture 


waft'ed 



a slant' 
a mass' 
a las' 
a vast 
ad vance 
a baft' 



II. WORDS OFTEN MISPRONOUNCED. 

com mand' ad vau'tage 

dis mast' ad vance'ment 

de mand' com mand'ment 

en hance' en chant'ment 

en chant' en hance'ment 

per chance' re mand'ed 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 19 

vii. Sound of a as in what. 

Marked with a dot under it, thus — a. This sound is 

equivalent to short o, as in not. The word wlwi is 
pronounced hwut, not writ. 

was squash squab'ble stal'wart 

wad swap squat'ter wal-let 

wasp swan squal'id wal'low 

yacht swamp squad'ron wad'dle 

squab swab quar'rel wan'ton 

squad wand swallow was'sail 
Call on the class for additional words. 



viii. The Ions: sound of e. 



Marked 


with a 


macron, 


thus — e. 


Long e is one of 


the three vowel extremes, 


a and o 


being 


the other two. 


be 


thief 




ei'ther 




e'go tism 


tree 


niece 




nei'ther 




e'qui poise 


beam 


siege 




leisure 




le'ni ent 


•clean 


seize 




le'ver 




a me'na ble 


ear 


deed 




fe'brile 




pre Qed'ence 


eaves 


fierce 




fe'tich 




re'qul em 



IX. The short sound of e. 

Marked with a breve, thus — e. Avoid yit for yet, aig 
for egg } etc. 

beg feoff leath'er ket'tle tep'id 

leg an'y measure met'ric tcn'et 

bread mer'ry pleasure preface res'in 

said bur'y bes'tial pet'rel a gain' 

says heifer deVade per'uke a gainst' 

deaf leop'ard fet'id seck'el forget' 



20 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



x. Sound of e as in verse. 



Marked 


with 


a 


wave or 


tilde, thus — e. 


This sound 


nearly 


coincides 


wi 


tli the sound of u as in 


urge, but is 


not quite 


so broad 


and guttural. Avoid 


the error of 


sounding 


e like 


ai, 


as airth 


for earth, etc. 


Give the r 


after e 


its full t 


sound. 






err 




serve 




earth 


er'mine 


serv'ant 


her 




verse 




earn 


earnest 


veYdict 


herd 




vercre 

o 




learn 


meYcy 


herb'age 


fern 




verb 




heard 


merchant 


earnings 


pert 




were 




myrrh 


per'son 


seYmon 


nerve 




germ 




thirst 


peYfect 


service 



xi. Sound of e as in there. 
Marked with a circumflex, thus — e. This sound is 
identical with the sound of a as in care, 
there air hair therefore 



where 
their 



air 
ere 
e'er 



heir 
ne'er 



where'fore 
where a§' 



xii. Sound of e as in they. 

Marked with a macron under it, thus — e. 
is identical with Ions a. 

they 
prey 
pray 



This sound 



whey 


weight 

— o 


vein 


neiol/bor 

— o 


way 


freight 


vain 


hein'oua 


neioh 

— o 


straight 


deism 

— o 


lii'bor 



xiii. The long sound of i and 

Marked with a macron, thus — I, y. 

Isle die liar fire 

style eye lyre buy'er 

fire ties by ti'ny 

lyre aye§ rye tyrant 



ho ri'zon 

in quTiV 
de rl'sive 
as pi r 'a nt 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION, 



21 



xiv. The short sound of i and y. 
Marked with a breve, thus — i, y. 



hirn 


lynx 




district 


trib'une 


hymn 


nymph 




syn'ocl 


syr'up 


withe 


sylph 




vlne'yard 


vi-e'ar 


myth 


rhythm 




syr'inge 


pret'ty 


pith 


schism 




syntax 


wit'ty 




xv. Sound of 


i as in first. 




Marked 


with a wave or tilde, thus — 1. 


This sound is 


identical with the sound of 


e as in her. 


Avoid giving 


the broader and more guttural sound of 


u as in urge. 


Be careful 


to give r 


its full sound. 




first 


lurch 


sir 


qir'-ele 


vir'tue 


thirst 


birth 


fir 


cir'-euit 


vir'gin 


girl 


dirge 


stir 


clr'cus 


stir'rup 


mirth 


verge 


earn 


gir'dle 


squirrel 


firm 


earth 


fern 


irk'some 


sir'loin 


worm 


myrrh 


learn 


meYcy 


thirty 


world 


dearth 


her 


earthly 


worfh'y 


w r ork 


bird 


perch 


early 


qeYtain 


worse 


gird 


heard 


earnest 


mirth'ful 


worth 


pearl 


hearse 


earth'en 


worthless 




xvi. Sound of 


i as in pique. 


Marked 


with two 


dots over it, thus — 


i. This sound 



is equivalent to that of long e as in me. 



an tique' 


cui sine 


ma chine 


bas tile 7 


de bris' 


ma rine' 


■ea priqe' 


e lite' 


po lice' 


che nille' 


en nui' 


pe tite' 


c^he nrige' 


fa tigue' 


ob lique' 


cri tique' 


fas cine' 


pe lisse' 



rou tine' 
ra vine' 
re gime' 
ton tine' 
u nique' 
phy §iqiie' 



22 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



xvii. The long sound of o. 
Marked with a macron, thus — 6. Avoid shortening 



or obscui 


ing the sound 


of long 


o as in 


old, 


in such 


words 


as 


road, coat, 


home, bone, 


stone, etc 






bone 




-eolt 




jolt 


yoke 




only 


stone 




•comb 




most 


yolk 




6'ral 


both 




dolt 




smoke 


quoth 




wholly 


broke 




folks 




spoke 


beau 




close'ly 


choke 




hold 




flown 


show 




lonely 


cloak 




home 




whole 


won't 




tro'phy 


croak 




roam 




more 


do n't 




o'pal 


oak 




hold 




roar 


goat 




o'dor 



I. WORDS OFTEN 3IISPRONOUNCED. 

Avoid the error of saying horse for hoarse, force for 
force. 



boat 


-eoax 


door 


•coarse 


gourd 


blow 


•coat 


load 


floor 


hoarse 


mourn 


trow 


toad 


loam 


brooch 


source 


toll 


glow 


toast 


oath 


pour 


force 


poll 


sew 


road 


oats 


porch 


board 


s-eroll 


quoth 


goad 


throat 


borne 


hoard 


roll 


gross 



II. WORDS OFTEN MISPRONOUNCED. 

In words like the following, avoid the error of giv- 
ing lon'j: o the sound of o as in or'der ; as IxVder For 



board'er, 


for'ger for for'ger, portrait 


for portrait, 


etc. Give 





its full, long sound. 




board'er 




por'ter an chr/vy 


de eo'rous 


bowl'der 




pdr'tion a ro'ma 


di plo'ma cj 


bow'sprit 




portrait ab do'men 


di plo'ma list 


poul'try 




for'ger eo ro'na 


op po'nent 


poiil'tice 




stor'age eon df/lence 


so no'rous 


shoul'der 




moum'er 60g no'men 


for'ger y 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



23 



xviii. The short sound of'O. 

Marked with a breve, thus — o. The sound of short 
o, as in not, is slightly modified by the different con- 
sonants with which it is combined. In words like cough, 
gone, loss, etc., the sound of short o is modified so that 
it tends towards a sound intermediate between short o 
and broad a. Avoid the common error of saying dawg 
or dorg for dog ; gawd or gord for god ; also, that of 
giit for got, etc. 



on 


clog 


off 


€OSt 


moth 


cough 


of 


fog 


scoff 


lost 


cloth 


trough 


odd 


log 


moss 


frost . . 


oft 


long 


box 


got 


loss 


sloth 


soft 


strong 


fox 


god 


toss 


broth 


loft 


gong 


phlox 


hod 


■cross 


troth 


gone 


wrong 



I. WORDS OFTEN MISPRONOUNCED. 

In every word give o its clean-cut short sound. 



-eonfma 


doc/ile 


floYin 


mon'acl 


-eom'mon 


don'key 


hov'el 


nonfad 


-ejm'et 


for'est 


groVel 


office 


-eom'bat 


fore'head 


lioYrid 


" or'ange 


-eonfrade 


frontier 


JoVund 


offset 


-eol'lar 


for'age 


'ipiVy 


offing 


ejn'flict 


god'ly 


softly 


dog'ma 


-eoi/strue 


sloth'ful 


oft'en 


doctor 


II. WORDS OFTEN 


MISPRONOUNCED. 


bon'net 


proc/ess 


stol'id 


dof or ous 


•coffee 


progress 


squalid 


hofo -eaust 


•coffin 


proj'ect 


quar'rel 


inon'o gram 


■eor'al 


phon'ic 


be troth' i 


mofe -eule 


prod'uct 


proVost 


be long 7 


on'er ous 


prod'uce 


son'net 


ex tol' 


or'a -ele 



24 



SCnOOL ELOCUTION. 



xix. Sound of o as in done. 

Marked with a dot over it, thus — 6. This sound is 
identical with short u as in sun. 



none 


some 


a bdve' 


oven 


does 


tongue 


bom'bast 


on'ion 


doth 


rough 


borough 


oth'er 


dost 


-eol/or 


cov'er 


plov'er 


come 


-eov'et 


hov'er 


eous'in 


bomb 


doz'en 


hon'ey 


slov'eu 


blood 


•eon'jure 


mon'grel 


wor'ry 



xx. Sound of o as in move. 

Marked with two dots under it, thus — o. This sound 
is identical with that of oo in moon, and of u after r, 
as in rule. Avoid the provincialism of reducing the 
sound of o, oo, and u to that of long u or ew, thus — 
dew for do, trew for true, tew for to, yew for you, 
skewl for school, etc. The sound of o, oo, or u is one 
of the extremes of the vowel scale, made correctly by 
projecting the lips free from the teeth. 



move 


hoof 


croup 


youth 


•Ca noe' 


prove 


roof 


group 


truth 


a do/ 


lose 


root 


soup 


through 


sham poo' 


d'o 


boot 


whoop 


grew 


bam buo' 


to 


spoon 


loop 


tool 


tat too' 


too 


soon 


route 


ghoul 


ap prove' 


two 


noon 


shoot 


con tour* 


re proof 


you 


school 


wound 


ba rouche' 


be hove 7 


noose 


rule 


soon 


car tourhe' 


gam boge' 


loose 


feol 


moon 


ta boo' 


de tour* 


cool 


rude 


your 


rai'er 


who 


goose 


ruse 


shoe 


move'ment 


whom 


moose 


choo§9 


soothe 


moon'shine 


whose 


spoon 


fruit 


tour 


ob trude' 


ru'ral 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



25 



XXL Sound of o as in for. 

Marked with a circumflex, thus — 6. This sound of o 
is identical with broad a as in all. It occurs before r 
in words of one syllable ; in accented syllables when 
not followed by another r; and also in the derivatives 
of such words as north, northern, etc. Be careful to 
sive r its full sound. 



or 


corpse 


cor'dial 


gor'geous 


cor'ner 


for 


horse 


bor'der 


mo/tal 


cor'nice 


nor 


storm 


formal 


mor'sel 


or'der 


born 


thorn 


fcVceps 


mortgage 


orchard 



xxii. Sound of o as in wolf. 

Marked with a dot under it, thus — o. This sound is 
identical with that of short oo, as in book, and that of 
u as in full. 



wolf 


-could n't 


wors'ted 


book 


pull 


would 


would n't 


wolfish 


cook 


hood 


■could 


should n't 


good'ness 


hook 


put 


bo'som 


wood'en 


wc/man 


look 


push 



xxiii. The long sound of u. 

Marked with a macron, thus — u. This is a compound 
sound, formed of a slight sound of y joined with oo 
long. After d, t, I, n, and s, it is somewhat difficult to 
introduce the y sound. Avoid the two extremes : (1) 
That of overdoing the y sound, so as to make dii'ty 
sound like ju'ty. (2) That of sounding u like oo long, 
as doc/ty for dii'ty. 



u§e 


cube 


due 


lieu 


suit 


pure 


fuge 


cure 


sue 


view 


deuce 


lure 


mu§e 


tube 


hue 


ewe 


feud 


dupe 


mute 


tune 


flue 


new 


sluice 


dime 



26 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

I. WORDS OFTEN MISPRONOUNCED. 

bu'gle flu'id mu'sic hu'mid 

beau'ty liu'man pu'pil nui'sanee 

eu'bie ju'ry pu'trid neu'ter 

du'ty lu'plne stu'pid suit'or 

II. WORDS OFTEN MISPRONOUNCED. 

€01n mu'ni -eate -eom mu/ni ty lu'na cy 

•eon sti tu'tion eii'mu la tive lu'na tic 

el o eu'tion lu'min a ry mu'gi eal 

rev o lu'tion lu gu'bri ous ed'u eate 

in sti tu'tion per pe tu'i ty eaTeu late 

xxiv. The short sound of u. 

Marked with a breve, thus — u. Avoid the vulgarism 
of saying op for up, on'der for un'de'r, etc. Say hur'ry, 



bud 


bur'row 


un'der 


eur'ren cy 


buff 


fur'row 


up'per 


sov'er eim 


dumb 


muYrain 


iit'ter 


huYri cane 


euYry 


flur'ry 


gutter 


droin'e da ry 



xxv. Sound of u as in rule. 

Marked with two dots under it, thus — u. This sound 
of u, when it follows the consonant r, is identical with 
that of o as in move, and oo in moon, little rhymes 
with fool, rude with mood, true with too, you with grew. 



brute 


rule 


brui§e 


pru'denc^e 


ru'mor 


fruit 


sehool 


emi§e 


pru'dent 


tru/ant 


erude 


truth 


eru'el 


prud'ish 


truly 


rude 


youth 


gru'el 


ru'in 


truffle 


prude 


true 


brutal 


ru'ral 


dru'id 


prune 


chew 


bru'in 


ruthless 


do'in" 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



27 



XXYI. 



Sound of u as in urge. 



Marked with a circumflex, thus — u. This sound occurs 
in monosyllables before r not followed by a vowel; in 
accented syllables before r final, or r followed by one 
or more consonants different from itself, and in deriva- 
tives from any such words. It coincides with e as in 
verge, i as in thirst, and o as in word, except that u is 
somewhat broader and more guttural. 



burn 


furl 


spurt 


word 


sur'geon 


burst 


hurl 


spurn 


work 


stur'geon 


■cur 


hurt 


purge 


worm 


mur'der 


•eurl 


purse 


urn 


world 


nmrliiur 


■curse 


nurse 


turn 


worth 


bur'den 



xxvii. Sound of u as in full. 

Marked with a dot under it thus — u. This sound is 
identical with that of o as in wolf, and short oo as in 
book. 



bull 


puss 




bullock 


pullet 


bush 


pull 




butch'er 


pulley 


push 


full 




bush'eg 


pul'pifc - 


put 


wolf 




bulrush 


pud'ding 


wood 


cook 




bullet 


putting 




xxviii. The dipht' 


rong oi as in oil 




The 


diphthongs oi 


and oy 


are equivalents. 


The sound 


of oi 


ls a compound 


of a-f-i. 






oil 


hoist 


foist 


j°y 


boifer 


boil 


moist 


poige 


troy 


loi'ter 


broil 


joist 


noi§e 


boy 


roy^l 


coil 


toil 


quoit 


buoy 


loy'al 


■coin 


soil 


point 


toy 


oint'ment 


loin 


roil 


joint 


oys'ter 


voy'age 



28 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



xxix. The diphthongs ou and ow. 

The diphthong ou, identical with ow, is a compound 
of a + o. Open the mouth freely in giving the initial 
of this sound. 



out 


■eow 


ground 


hour 


bower 


ounce 


how 


round 


flour 


power 


our 


now 


sound 


sour 


lower 


doubt 


owl 


■elown 


scour 


shower 


drought 


fowl 


drown 


plow 


tower 


gouge 


howl 


frown 


slough 


dower 



III. Exercises on Vocals. 

I. HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 

Concert drill exercises on the following table may be 
given as follows : 

1. Preliminary breathing exercise. 

2. Concert phonic spelling of the words under each 
vocal. 

3. Concert pronunciation of words, with various de- 
grees of force from the whisper to loud force, and with 
the rising, the falling, and the circumflex inflections. 

4. It' time will allow, require each pupil, singly, to 
take the drill indicated above. 

II. TABLE OF VOCAES. 

a. — ale, sail, pay, they, vein, gauge, break, gaol. 
ii. — ah ! are, half, laugh, hearth, guard, aunt, alms, 
a, 6. — all, awe, aught, broad, stalk, naught, ought, 
a. — add, and, at, bade, plaid, catch, man, hand, 
a, e\ — air, dare, bear, there, square, Ore, heir, e'er, 
a. — ant, ask, dance, chance, glass, last, staff, gasp. 
a, o. — was, wand, wasp, what, swap, not, blot, god. 
e. — me, we, bee, bean, fierce, niece, seize, key, tea 
e. — end, dread, said, say§, deaf, feoff ; yes, get, yet. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION 



29 



TABLE OF VOCALS.— Continued. 

e, 1. — err, her, earth, were, verge, myrrh, thirst, work, 
e, a. — vein, deign, rein, they, prey, weight, neigh. 
e, L — there, where, air, ere, bare, ne'er, care, e'er. 
I, y. — Ice, pine, fire, lyre, lie, liar, aisle, aye§, eye§. 
1. — in, pin, been, hymn, myth, sieve, build, since. 
I, e. — thirst, first, girl, earn, learn, bird, third, worst, 
i', e. — pique, clique, ob liquet pol ice', ma fine', 
o.— old, oak, broke, pour, ore, door, toll, sew, tow. 
o, a. — odd, not, dog, god, lost, off, cough, moss, loss. 
o, oo, ii. — move, moon, rule, do, route, true, grew, you. 
6, a. — or, nor, horse, quart, wart, corn, storm, born. 
6, u. — done, son, doe§ 3 cloth, sponge, blood, flood, rim. 
o, oo, u. — wolf, would, wood, should, book, cook, put, 
u. — u§e, mu§e, due, few, view, feud, tune, cube, tube, 
ii, 6. — tub, but, dust, trust, done, doe§, bomb, crumb. 
ii, oo, o — rule, rude, truth, youth, spoon, move, prove, 
u. — urge, purge, burn, turn, fur, burr, cur, curl, furl, 
u, 66, o. — put, pull, push, bush, puss, book, took, 
oi, oy. — oil, boil, toil, boy, joy, cloy, roil, coil, foil, 
ou, ow. — out, our, ounce, flour, power, sour, owl. 

III. CONCERT DRIIX. 

In concert drill on the follovjing table, observe the fol- 
lovnng directions. 

1. Eead the columns vertically. 

2. Repeat with slow movement ; moderate ; fast. 

3. Repeat in a forcible whisper. 

4. Repeat with gentle force; moderate; loud. 



a-a-a 


e-e-e 


U-ll-U 


a-a-a 


I— I— I 


u-u-ii 


a-a-a 


i-i-i 


u-u-u 


a-a-a 


6—5-0 


u-u-u 


e-e-e 


0-0-0 


oi-oi-oy 


e-e-e 


0-0-0 


ou-ou-ow 



30 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION 



IV. Vowel Sounds in Unaccented Syllables. 

There are many delicate shades of sound in unac- 
cented vowels which must be learned from the lips of 
the living teacher, or by noticing carefully the pro- 
nunciation of educated and critical people. 



The 
cented 

beg'gar 

collar 

dollar 

ll'ar 

molar 

polar 

stellar 

cellar 



•cap tain 
curiam 
qeYtain 



I. Final unaccented ar, er, ir, or, yr. 

vowels a, e, i, o, u, y, preceding r in final unac- 
syllables, have the sound of c as in her. 



al'der 




arliior 


suTphur 


banlier 




aVdor 


au'gttr 


ladder 




color 


zeph'yr 


pa'per 




o'dor 


marly r 


ta'pir 




parlor 


salyr 


na'dir 




felnur 


hon'or 


mill or 




lelnur 


lion (-urn) 


ma'jor 




miirlnur 


a'pron(-urn) 


II. Final 


-ain like -en. 






muYrain 


chieftain 




villain 


chaplain 




bar 


gain 


plan'tain 



in. Words having a or o unaccented. 

In words like the following, a or o in unaccented final 
syllables has a slightly obscured sound of short u. 



ffnal 


vital 


phantom 


ten'ant 


fiscal 


vo'cal 


transom 


gallop 


le'gal 


velial 


handsome 


ballad 


menial 


eomlnon 


hamlnoek 


saTad 


morlal 


■eiis'tom 


hill'ock 


sea'man 


na'§al 


blos'som 


tVphan 


firelnan 


na'val 


drag'on 


tra'ant 


brake'man 


o'val 


serlnon 


servant 


balance 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



iv. Final unaccented a. 



31 



Unaccented a, at the end of a word, has the sound 
of intermediate a, verging towards short u, as com'ma 



or cum mu. 








con/ma 


al'ge bra 


pi az'za 


va nil'la 


c'ra 


a're a 


co ro'na 


guer ilia 


ex'tra 


a re'na 


ver'te bra 


fa ri'na, 


la'va, 


cu'po la 


man til'la 


lam'i na 


ml'ca 


op'e ra 


scin til'la 


mem o ran'da 


so'fa 


i de'a 


um brel'la 


a nath'e ma 



v. Sound of a in unaccented final syllables. 
In words like the following, a has the sound of short 



e; as, -age: 


= ej 


and -ater 


set. 






cour'age 




niar'riage 




sav'age 


pal'ate 


dam'age 




carriage 




ug'age 


pl'rate 


drain'age 




mlle'age 




ag'ate 


frig'ate 


fiont'age 




postage 




cll'mate 


ad van'tage 


leakage 




tillage 




pri'vate 


per cent'agt 



vi. Unaccented a as an initial syllable. 

In the first syllable of words like the following, the 
vowel a, when unaccented, has nearly the sound of short 
a a little obscured, or of a as in ask, verging towards 
short u ; as a bout', a bove' ; or a bout', a bove'. Avoid 
the common error of giving a the long sound ; as a, bove', 
ma chine' ; also that of short u, as u bout', u bove'. In 
the dictionary this sound is unmarked. 



a bove' 


a gain' 


a like' 


ea det' 


ga zette y 


a bout' 


a larm' 


a mong' 


-ea nal' 


ma chin 


a buse' 


a las' 


a part' 


ea less' 


ma rine' 


a cross' 


a live' 


a ri§e' 


ea nard' 


ra vine' 


a dult' 


a lone' 


a side' 


ea noe' 


ca reen' 



32 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



vii. Silent e and o. 



In the ft 


blowing words and some 


others, e 


and o are 


silent before n or /, thus — heaven = 


hevn, evil 


=evL 


bacon 


golden 


listen 


open 


season 


button 


garden 


leaven 


often 


sudden 


cotton 


gladden 


leaden 


person 


spoken 


crimson 


glisten 


lengthen 


parson 


sloven 


deacon 


given 


liken 


poison 


shovel 


damson 


glutton 


lesson 


rea§on 


shrivel 


devil 


grovel 


lessen 


reckon 


snivel 


driven 


heathen 


mason 


raven 


smitten 


even 


heaven 


mutton 


raisin 


sunken 


evil 


harden 


maiden 


ridden 


token 


easel 


hasten 


moisten 


' rotten 


teasel 


fallen 


happen 


mitten 


ravel 


weasel 


frozen 


hazel 


oven 


seven 


weaken 


frighten 


kitten 


ousel 


silken 


weapon 



vni. Short i in unaccented final syllables. 



ag'ile 


fac/ile 


sanguine 

o 


mas'cu line 


doc/ile 


fer'tile 


siib'tile 


fein'l nine 


des'tine 


frag'ile 


ster'ile 


gen'u ine 


duc'tile 


flex'ile 


tex'tile 


heYo ine 


cn'gine 


hos'tile 


vi'rile 


pu'er lie 


er'mine 


mo'bile 


ver'sa tile 


ju've nile 



IX. Short i in unaccented initial syllables. 



di vide' 


di vest' 


di gress' 


dl plo'ma 


di late' 


di vert' 


mi nute' 


dl ges'tion 


di lute' 


di viilge' 


gi raffe' 


dl vls'ion 


di reef 


di verge' 


qi gar' 


di la'tion 


di gest' 


di vorce' 


fi nance' 


di rec'tion 


di van' 


di vine' 


ti rade' 


bl tu'men 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION., 33 

X. Sound of short i and y in unaccented syllables. 

In words like the following, there is a tendency to 
give short c the sound of obscure e or a, and to pra- 
long final -ty into -te. 

ac tivl ty gul li bill ty re spon si bill ty 

a gill ty in teTli gi. ble tran quilli ty 

de bill ty in coYri gi. ble pos si bil'i ty 

di vis i bill ty in vin'c.i ble u til'i ty 

el i gi bill ty il legl ble u na niml ty 

fu §i bill ty in finl ty in com pat i bill ty 

XL Sound of u in unaccented final syllables. 

In the pronunciation of words of two syllables ending 
in -ture, -dure, or -sure, there is a slight difference in 
good usage. By some, the word creature, for example, 
is pronounced as if spelled thus — creat'yer, verging tow- 
ards crea'cher ; by others it is pronounced thus — 
creat'yoor. 



crea'ture 


frac'ture 


na'ture 


rap'ture 


cullure 


fulure 


nurlure 


scriplure 


caplure 


geslure 


pas'ture 


structure 


fealure 


leclure 


pic'ture 


venlure 


fix'ture 


leisure 


poslure 


ver'dure 


vullure 


su'ture 


ves'ture 


riip'ture 



XII. Sound of u in unaccented final syllables. 

In words of more than two syllables, the sound of 
-ure is made somewhat longer than in words of two 
syllables ; as furniture is pronounced fur'nit yoor. 

ap'er ture lit'er a ture carl -ea ture 

o'ver ture tem'per a ture jii'di ca ture 

lig'a ture mini a ture sig'na ture 

siglia ture ap'er ture cur'va ture 

s 



34 SCHOOL ELOCUTION, 





XIII. 


The syllable -tude. 




ap'ti tude 
al'ti tude 
at'ti tude 




lon'gi tude 
las'si tiide 
niuTti tiide 


rec'ti tiide 
sol'i tide 
seYvi tude 




xrv. 


Long o unaccented. 




mo roc'co 
po ta/to 
o pln'ion 




to bac'co 
pro portion 
pi ii'no 


ag'o ny 
up'po g'lte 
eTo quence 



xv. Miscellaneous Hints. 

1. The article a is sounded in connection with the 
word that follows it; as, "a book" is sounded as one 
word of two syllables, thus — a-book'. Here the article 
has the sound of long a, obscured and cut off suddenly. 
It is not good usage to give it the sound of short u, 
thus — ii-book', or of fir-book'. 

2. Before a word beginning with a consonant the 
article the, except when emphatic, is sounded as a syllable 
of the word which it precedes, as the-book', pronounced 
as a word of two syllables, accented on the last. In 
such cases the obscured c sound in the is really repre- 
sented by short i, rather than by short u; as, thi-book', 
thi-horse', tin-school'. It is sometimes indicated thus — 
th'-book', th'-horse'. 

3. Before words beginning with a vowel, as the-air', 
the-ice', c in the has the long sound, less obscured and 
shortened than when the precedes a word beginning with 
a consonant. The error in sounding the articles a and 
the frequently arises from attempts to give their phonic 
spelling independent of their connection with the words 
that follow them. In order to sound the articles cor- 
rectly, notice how they are pronounced, by persons of 
good taste, in ordinary conversation. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 35 

SECTION" III. 

CONSONANT SOUNDS. 

I. Articulation. 

1. Distinct articulation is essential to good reading 
and speaking. "The first step towards becoming a good 
elocutionist," says Conistock, "is a correct articulation. 
A public speaker, possessed of only a moderate voice, 
if he articulates correctly, will be better understood, and 
heard with greater pleasure, than one who vociferates 
without judgment. The voice of the latter may indeed 
extend to a considerable distance, but the sound is dis- 
sipated in confusion. Of the former voice not the 
smallest vibration is wasted ; every stroke is perceived 
at the utmost distance to which it readies ; and hence 
it has often the appearance of penetrating even farther 
than one which is loud, but badly articulated." 

2. "In just articulation," says Austin, ''the words are 
not hurried over, nor precipitated syllable over syllable ; 
nor, as it were, melted together into a mass of confusion ; 
they are neither abridged, nor prolonged; nor swallowed, 
nor forced, and, if I may so express myself, shot from 
the mouth; they are not trailed nor drawled, nor let 
slip out carelessly, so as to drop unfinished. They are 
delivered out from the lips, as beautiful coins newly 
issued from the mint, deeply and accurately impressed, 
perfectly finished, neatly struck by the proper organs, 
distinct, sharp, in due succession, and of due weight." 

3. The best way of "training the organs of speecli to 
good articulation is by means of forcible phonic spelling 
and by drill-exercises on the elementary sounds, partic- 
ularly on subvocals and aspirates. 

4. " Articulate utterance," says Prof. Bussell,- " requires 
a constant exercise of discrimination of the mind, and 
of precision or accuracy in the movements of tlie organs 



36 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

of speech. A correct articulation, however, is not be- 
labored or artificial in its character. It results from the 
intuitive and habitual action of a disciplined attention. 
It is easy, fluent, and natural; but, like the skillful 
execution of an accomplished musician, it gives forth 
every sound, even in the most rapid passages, with truth 
and correctness. 

5. "A good enunciation gives to every vowel and 
consonant its just proportion and character; none being 
omitted, no one blending with another in such a manner 
as to produce confusion, and none so carelessly executed 
as to cause mistake in the hearer, by its resemblance 
to another. 

6. "A correct enunciation is the fundamental quality 
of a distinct and impressive elocution. It is an attain- 
ment of great value, for the ordinary purposes of 
communication; but it becomes doubly important, in the 
act of reading or speaking in public, whether we advert 
to the larger space which must be traversed by the 
voice, or the greater moment of the topics of discourse 
which are usual on such occasions. 

7. " The appropriate style of modern eloquence is that 
of intellectual, more than of impassioned, expression ; 
and enunciation being, of all the functions of the voice, 
that which is most important to the conveyance of 
thought and meaning, it justly requires, in the course 
of education, more attention and practice than any other 
branch of elocution." 

II. Classification of Elementary Sounds. 
The elementary sounds are classified as follows : 

1. Vocals, or tonics. 

2. Subvocals, or subtonics. 

3. Aspirates, or atonies. 

Vocals, represented by vowels, are sounds consisting 
of pure tone only. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 37 

Subvocals, represented by consonants, are sounds that 
have tone, but are inferior to vocals in fullness. A 
consonant can not be named without the aid of a vowel, 
as o is named in the alphabet, be. Hence the term 
consonant, sounded with. 

Aspirates, represented by consonants, are sounds with- 
out tone. 

Letters are characters to represent articulate sounds. 

III. Diacritical Marks of Consonants. 

[As given in Webster's Dictionary.] 



9 soft — gede, gent, 
■e hard — call, la-e. 
ch unmarked — church, 
ch soft — ghaise, chute, 
eh hard — chyle, -chyme, 
g hard — gum, log. 
g soft— gem, gin. 
§ soft — z — ha§, hi§. 
s sharp — c — sin, gas. 



th sharp — thing, bath. 
£h fiat — thine, smooth. 
ng unmarked— sing, riri 
n- — ink, link, 
x =.ks — box, fox. 
5 = gz — exist, ex^alt. 
ph = f — phlox, sylph, 
qu — kw — queen, queer, 
wh = hw — when, why. 



IV. Drill Lessons on Consonant Sounds. 

I. SUBVOCAXS. 

Iii concert drill- exercises on the following table, observe 
the following directions : 

1. Pronounce each word distinctly, and then give, 
forcibly, the phonic spelling. 

2. Eepeat, forcibly, each sub vocal and aspirate three 
times, thus — b, b, b; d> cl, d, etc. 

3. After concert drill, require each pupil, in turn, to 
give the sounds. 

b. — bib, babe, bee, ebb, mob, rub, sob, -ejb. 
d. — did, dog, dead, odd, dread, died, said, bed. 
g.— gag, gig, grog, get, girl, gills, gig'gle. 



38 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

J — j°y> just, jug, gill, gem, gin, gln'ger. 
1. — lull, lull, mill, bell, sale, boil, toil, soil, 
m. — man, maim, mum, dim, rum, some. 
n. — nun, none, noun, name, rim, gun. 
r {rough). — rude, rule, room, rood, roll, roar. 
r (smooth). — or, ore, more, oar, year, deer, 
v. — valve, vale, vine, live, of, veer, vote. 
w. — will, woe, we, wine, wet, wind, wood. 
y. — yes, yet, you, yam, yarn, yoke, yacht, 
z. — zone, ooze, lo§e, nose, blaze, craze, 
zli. — azure, measure, pleasure, treasure, 
th. — thy, thine, this, with, blithe, bathe, 
ng. — king, ring, rang, rung, sing, sang, siing. 
n. — ink, link, think, wink, blink. 
? = gz. — exist, example, exhort, exhaust. 

II. ASPIRATES. 

f. — fife, if, fill, beef, buff, off, laugh. 

h. — how, home, hill, had, here, hair, hail. 

k, -e, eh. — kill, kick, -cake, -eome, ehyle, ehyme. 

p. — pipe, ripe, pup, pop, pip, peep. 

s. — sauce, cease, cite, Qell, sense, c,ents. 

t. — too, clot, tilt, trot, trust, twit, wit. 

sh, (;h. — shall, sham, rash, dash, c, liaise, chute. 

ch. — chin, chop, rich, ditch, church, birch. 

th. — thin, thick; pith, teeth, truth, youth. 

X = ks. — box, fox, locks, vex, necks, tax, lax, wax. 

V. Miscellaneous Hints. 

1. Do not be over-particular about a heavy articula- 
tion of the d in and. The d should be sounded, but 
not so painfully emphasized as to become an elocu- 
tionary affectation. 

2. Th is vocal, as in Chine, in the following plurals: 
baths, la£h§, paths, moths., clofli§, oaths, mouths, swafh§, 
wreafhg, boofhg; and in blithe, lithe, with, and beneath. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. o! 

SECTION IV. 

CLASSIFICATION OF ELEMENTARY SOUNDS. 

I. Table of Elementary Sounds. 

I. VOCALS. 



a 


a-oe, 


n-a-me 


If 


Ml, 


h-y-mn 


a 


a-lm§, 


a-rt 





o-ld, 


11-0 


a 


s-fl. 


1-aw 


o 


O-D, 


o-dd 


a 


a-t, 


a-n 


O, 00 


m-o-ve, 


m-oo-n 


a 


a-ir, 


e-a-re 


u 


u-se, 


d-ue 


a 


a-sk, 


■el-a-ss 


u 


u-p, 


s-ii-n 


e 


e-ve, 


m-e 


11 


u-rge, 


b-u-rn 


c 


e-hd, 




11, 00 


f-u-U, 


w-oo-1 


e 


h-e-r, 


e-rr 


oi, oy 


oi-I, 


b-oy 


i>y 


I-ce, 


m-y 


ou, ow 


ou-t, 


ow-1 



II. SUBVOCAI.S. 



b 


b-i-b, 


b-a-be 


r 


r-oa-r, re-a-r 


d 


d-i-d, 


de-ad 


€h 


fh-Ine, wi-fh 


g 


g-a-g, 


g-i-g 


V 


v-al-ve, wa-ve 


J 


j-am, 


g-em 


w 


w-ill, w-ell 


1 


1-u-ll, 


be-U 


y 


y-es, y-et 


m 


m-ai-ni, 


mi-ne 


z 


z-one, z-in-e 


n 


n-u-n, 


nl-ne 


zh, z 


a-z'ure, sei'z-urs 


Dg, 11 


rl-ng, 


ra-n-k 











III. ASPIRATES. 




f 


f-i-fe, 


o-ff 


t 


t-en-t, t-ar-t 


h 


h-at, 


h-ill 


ch 


ch-ur-ch, ch-ain 


k 


k-ill, 


boo-k 


sb 


sh-ip, wi-sb 


P 


p-I-pe, 


p-ut 


th 


thi-ck,, pa-th 


s 


s-ell, 


s-en-se 


wh 


wh-en, wh-ere 



40 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



IT. Vocals and Equivalents. 

[Arranged according to tlia natural order of tlicir formation by tJie 
organs of speech.] 



I. LONG. 


II. SHORT. 


e 


e-ve, 


m-e 


1 


I-n, I-t 


a 


a-le, 


a-ge 


e 


e-nd, m-e-n 


a 


ai-r, 


c-a-re 


a 


a-t, a-n 


a 


a-liu§, 


h-a-lf 


a 


a-sk, p-a-ss 


il 


• u-rge, 


c-u-rl 


u 


u-p, b-ii-d 


a 


a-11, 


. 1-aw 


o 


u-n, d-o-g 





o-ld, 


n-o 


u 


p-u-11, p-u-t 





m-o-ve 


d-o 







COMPOUNDS AND DIPHTHONGS— LONG. 



u = i + oo. — u-se, m-u-te. 
i=~a+e. — I-ce, m-I-ne. 



ou = a + oo. — ou-t, th-ou. 
oi = a.-f e. — oi-1, b-ov. 



III. SUBVOCALS AND ASPIRATES. 

[Arranged according to tlie natural order of tlicir formation by the 
organs of speech.] 

I. COGNATES. 



SUBVOCALS. 


ASPIRATES. 


b 


b-i-b, 


b-a-be 


P 


P-i-pe, 


p-6-p 


w 


W-lll, 


W-00 


wh 


Wll-CD, 


wh-y 


V 


v-a-lve, 


w-a-vo 


f 


f-I-ie, 


f-eo-ff 


fh 


fh-Ine, 


wl-fh 


th 


th-ick, 


mo-th 


z 


z-one, 


sl-ze 


s 


s-ay, 


s-ee 


d 


d-i-d, 


d-rea-d 


t 


t-en-t, 


t-ro-t 


j 


j-oy, • 


jj-ail 


cli 


ch-ur-ch 


ch-Inie 


zli 


a-z-ure 




sh 


sh-all, 


sli-ow 


y 


J-es, 


7-ell 


li 


h-o\v, 


li-ome 


g 


9-ag, 


pH 


k 


e-a-ke, 


e-o-ko 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION, 



41 



II. SUBTONICS WITHOUT COGNATES. 



m. — m-ai-m, a-m. 
n. — n-ii-n, n-I-ne. 
I;— 1-u-ll, oi-L 



r {rough). — r-ule, r-oom. 
r {smooth). — o-re, mo-re. 



ne.- 



IV. Table of Consonant Sounds. 

[Classified according to tlieir formation by tJie organs of speech.] 

In order to secure correct aud forcible articulation, it 
may be desirable to call the attention of pupils to the 
position of the organs of speech in making the conso- 
nant sounds. Teachers can do this without any detailed 
instructions in print. 



Lip Sounds. 

[Labials.] 


b 
m 
wh 


P 
w 


b-a-be, 

m-ai-m, 

wh-y, 


p-i-pe 

w-ay 

wh-en 


Lips and Teeth. 

[Labio-Dentals.] 


f 

V 


f-i-fe, 
v-ine, 


f-eo-ff 
e-ve 


Tongue and Teeth. 

[Linguo-Dentals.] 


d 
fh 

J 
s 
z 


t 

th 

ch 

sh 

zh 


d-i-d, 
fh-is, 

j-oy, 

s-un, 
z-one, 


t-eu-t 

th-ink 

ch-ur-ch 

sh-un 

a-z'ure 


Tongue and Palate. 

[Linguo- Palatals.] 


1 

y 


k 

r 


g-ood, 
l-u-U, 

y-et, 


boo-k 
r-oa-r 

y-es 


"Nasal Passages. 


n 


n-o-ne, 
si-ng, 


n-i-ne 
ri-ng 


Glottis. 


h 


h-at, 


h-ow 



42 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

V. Phonic Drill. — Subvocals and Aspirates. 

b. — babe, bribe, rib, bid, robe, bird, curb, 
g, s. — cent, singe, onge, Ige, face, race, sense, 
cli. — church, birch, lunch, chee§e, chime, 
d. — did, dead, ride, dlge, death, thread, dried, 
f, gh. — fine, off, fife, fear, deaf, foot, laugh, 
g— g^g> gig. game, pis, rag, good, gauge, 
h. — home, how, who, hair, hate, hill, hi§. 
j, g-— J°y> just, jet, age, page, gem, gill, 
k, -e. — kill, kite, look, came, could, cake, crowd, 
•eh. — ache, chord, chyme, chyle, ehoir, chorus. 
1. — look, lull, ball, boil, lad, well, tall, pale. 
in. — make, room, main, moon, numb, maim, 
n. — noon, neat, ten, nine, nun, pin, none, 
ng. — sing, ring, thing, bank, rank, thank, 
p. — pipe, cup, cape, hope, ripe, drop, paid. 
r. — roar, rear, fire, floor, door, store, more, 
s, 9. — sauce, singe, saw, Ige, intense, source. 
sh, gh. — shine, shall, ghaise, wish, bush, chute. 
t. — tent, dot, tell, w T rite, time, trot, threat, 
th. — thick, death, thin, length, width, throat, 
fh. — this, these, fhose, then, Chat, wifh, their, 
v. — vine, eve, vote, move, veer, nerve, vest, 
w. — wind, wet, woe, wait, wear, wl§e, wood. 
wh. — when, where, why, what, wheat, wheel. 
x = ks. — ox, box, locks, ax, tax, lacks, vex, fox. 
x = gz. — exact, exist, example, exhaust, exert 
v.— yes, yet, yell, year, young, youth, truth, 
z. — zone, biizz, breeze, ooze, lo§e, i§, zinc. 
zh. — azure, pleasure, measure, treasure. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 43 

VI Articulation Drill. 
First, pronounce each word very distinctly and forcibly ; 
then give the phonic spelling, and re-pronounce the word. 

rb. — orb, herb, verb, -eiirb, barb, garb, 
rd. — hard, lard, bard, -eard, board, hoard, 
rk. — ark, bark, park, hark, mark, lark, 
spr. — spring, sprang, sprung, spray, sprite, 
rt. — art, heart, part, cart, dart, start, 
str. — string, strung, straight, strength, stray. 
sts. — masts, fasts, fists, nests, vests, pests, 
sks. — asks, tasks, basks, casks, masks, 
skt. — asked, tasked, basked, masked, rasped, 
sps. — gasps, clasps, rasps, hasps, grasps, 
spt. — gasped, clasped, rasped, hasped, grasped. 
£h. — this, that, fhe§e, those, with, bathe, 
th. — three, throat, thrill, thick, thin, bath. 
wh. — when, where, why, what, which, wheat, 
dn. — laden, burden, harden, sadden, gladden. 
kn. — hearken, liken, weaken, spoken, broken, 
pn. — open, weapon, happen, ripen, deepen, 
vn. — given, seven, oven, heaven, leaven, even, 
sn. — glisten, hasten, fasten, lesson, mason. 

VII. Articulation Drill. 

1. Bound the rough rock the ragged rascal ran. 

2. Shoes and socks shock Susan. (Repeat.) 

3. The scene was truly rural. (Repeat.) 

4. She uttered a sharp, shrill shriek. (Repeat.) 

5. The difficulties were formidable, inexplicable, and 
irremediable. 

6. Amidst the mists and coldest frosts, 
With stoutest wrists and loudest boasts, 
He thrusts his fists against the posts, 
And still insists he sees the ghosts. 






44 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

7. Shrewd Simon Short sewed shoes. Seventeen sum- 
mers' speeding storms, succeeding sunshine, successively 
saw Simon's small, shabby shop standing staunch, saw 
Simon's self-same sign still swinging, silently specifying : 
" Simon Short, Smithfield's sole surviving shoemaker. 
Shoes sewed, soled superfinely." Simon's spry, sedulous 
spouse, Sally Short, sewed shirts, stitched sheets, stuffed 
sofas. Simon's six stout, sturdy sons — Seth, Samuel, 
Stephen, Saul, Shadrach, Silas — sold sundries. Sober 
Seth sold sugar, starch, spices; simple Sam sold saddles, 
stirrups, screws ; sagacious Stephen sold silks, satins, 
shawls ; skeptical Saul sold silver salvers, silver spoons ; 
selfish Shadrach sold shoe-strings, soaps, saws, skates; 
slack Silas sold Sally Short's stuffed sofas. 

8. Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle-sifter, in 
sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles, thrust three 
thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb ; now, 
if Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle-sifter, in 
sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles, thrust three 
thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb, see 
that thou, in sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles, 
thrust not three thousand thistles through the thick of 
thy thumb. Success to the successful thistle-sifter. 

9. Of all the saws T ever saw saw, T never saw a 
saw saw as this saw saws. 

10. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; a 
peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter 
Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where 's the 
peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked ? 

11. When a twister twisting, would twist him a twist, 
For twisting a twist three times he will twist ; 
P)Ut if one of the twists untwist from the twist, 
The twist untwisting, untwists the twist. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 45 

SECTION V. 
ORTHOEPY. 

Good Usage. The standard of correct pronunciation 
is good usage. Good usage implies the pronunciation of 
the educated and intellectual classes of society. The 
standard of good usage is found in the dictionaries of 
a language. In the United States, the standard dic- 
tionaries are Webster's and Worcester's. 

The standard of pronunciation is never absolutely un- 
deviating. Custom, from time to time, changes the pro- 
nunciation of words; but the number of these changes 
is not large. Whenever general good usage changes the 
pronunciation or the spelling of a word, this change 
soon finds its way into a new edition of the dictionary. 
The dictionary, then, remains the standard of good usage. 

There are a few hundred words in our language that 
have two authorized pronunciations, either of which is 
allowable. 

Affectations. All affectations in pronunciation should 
be carefully avoided. The affectation of el'ther and 
neither, for either and neither, is a case in point. 
Avoid in'quiry for in qui/y. There is no better test 
of culture, scholarship, and refinement, than a correct 
pronunciation. 

On this point, Prof. William Eussell says : " Individual 
opinion, when it is at variance with this important and 
useful principle of accommodation, gives rise to eccen- 
tricities, which neither the authority of profound learn- 
ing, nor that of strict accuracy and system, can redeem 
from the charge of pedantry. 

"It is a matter of great importance to recognize the 
rule of authorized custom, and neither yield to the in- 
fluence of those errors which, through inadvertency, will 
creep into occasional or local use; nor, on the other 



4G SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

hand, be induced to follow innovations or changes adopted 
without sufficient sanction. A cultivated taste is always 
perceptible in pronunciation, as in every other expression 
of mind ; and errors in pronouncing are unavoidably 
associated with a deficiency in the rudiments of a good 
education." 

PROVINCIALISMS. Provincialisms, or the peculiar pro- 
nunciation prevailing in certain localities or sections of 
our country, must be studiously corrected and avoided. 
It is to this class of errors that teachers must carefully 
direct their attention. The force of habit is so strong 
that pupils continue to mispronounce words long after 
they know the pronunciation to be incorrect. 

Provincialisms most commonly consist of some varia- 
tion or perversion of vowel sounds : as half for half, 
calf for calf, laugh for laugh, etc. ; of tew for to, trew 
for true, dew for do, yew for you ; of grass for grass, 
ask for ask, last for last, etc. ; of dawg or dorg for dog ; 
of git for get, giit for got, etc. ; of toon for tune, noo 
for new, dooty for duty, etc. ; of op for iip, under for 
under ; of skewl for school, rewl for rule. 

Another class of these errors consists in misplacing 
the accent of words ; as, i'de a for i de'a, ad'ult for 
a dult', re'cess for re cess', -eon vex' for eon'vex, 
ex tant' for ex'tant, in ter est'ing for in'ter est ing, 
il'lus trate for il lus'trate, ru'bust for ro bust', tl'rade 
for ti rade', ve he'ment for ve'he ment. 

In this connection, the following lines from Oliver 
Wendell Holmes convey a valuable lesson : 

1. A few brief stanzas may be well employed 
To speak of errors we can all avoid. 
Learning condemns beyond the reach of hope 
The careless churl that speaks of soap for soap : 
Her edict exiles from her fair abode 
The clownish voice that utters road for road, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



47 



Less stern to him who calls liis coat a coat, 
And steers his boat believing it a boat, 
She pardoned one, our classic city's boast, 
Who said, at Cambridge, most instead of most ; 
But knit her brows, and stamped her angry foot, 
To hear a teacher call a root a root. 

Once more : speak clearly, if you speak at all ; 

Carve every word before you let it fall ; 

Do n't, like a lecturer or dramatic star, 

Try over hard to roll the British r; 

Do put your accents in the proper spot ; 

Do n't— let me beg you — do n't say "Row? " for " What?" 

And, when you stick on conversation's burrs, 

Do n't strew the pathway with those dreadful urs. 



I. Words Often Mispronounced. 

[By misplacing the accent .] 

The only variations from "Webster's Dictionary," in 
the following lists, include a few words in relation to 
which it may be said that cjood usa2fe is in advance of 
the dictionary. 

First, require pupils to pronounce the following words 
in concert; then require each pupil, singly, in turn, to 
pronounce five or more words. 



ab do'men 
a-e eli'mat ed 
ar'mis tice 
ar'bl ter 
ab'ject 
ad'verse 
ad dress' 
a clept' 
a dult' 



al If 
a're a 
au re'o la 
an tip'o de§ 
al busmen 
ba salt 7 
bur lesque 
bi tu'men 
ben'zine 



■ea nine 
ca bar 
-eay enne' 
eon tour 7 
eon'vex 
cor'net 
eon'strue 
eon'tents 
•eom'plex 



43 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



€on fl dant' 
eoni'bat ant 


ex/em pla ry 
ex po'nent 


leg'is la tor 
ly ce'um 


eom'pro mi§e 
eoni'mun ist 


ex pur'gate 
ex ploit' 


leth iir'gic 
lith og'ra pher 


eon'tro vert 


fi nance' 


mon soon' 


eom'par a ble 
eon'ver sant 


fron'tier 

ior'niid a ble 


mus taebe' 

mag a ziue' 


eon'tu me ly 


frag'nient a ry 


mis eon'strue 


com'plai §ance 
eon tribute 


gran'ary 

gon'do la 


mu se'um 
met'al lur gy 


eog no'nien 


glac/i er 


me'di o ere 


eon f Is'eate 
€on do'lence 


guar'di an 
gri mace' 


ob'li ga to ry 
or'tbo e py 


chas'tise ment 
civ il i za'tion 


gla dl'o lus 
haVas's 


ob'se quie§ 
ob'so lete 


chiv'al ric 


ho ri'zon 


on'er ous 


eom man dant' 


hy'gi cue 


or'nate 


eom pen'sate 
con q.en'trate 
eoy o'tc 
def i git 


hy me ne'al 
I de'a 

il lus'trate 
il lils'trat cd 


6'vert 
oc cult' 
op po'nent 

o'a sis 


dev'as tate 
dol'or ous 


in qulr'y 
in'grate 


pro lix' 
pre text' 


dyn'am ite 


in'ter stice 


pre tense' 


de mqn'strate 

de co'rous 


in'ter est ing 
in'ter est ed 


pur loin' 
plae'ard 


dep ri va'tion 

des/ul to ry 
di plo'ma c,y 
dis course' 
dis card' 


llll'pl ous 
in eom'par a ble 
in dis'pu ta ble 
in ex'pli ca ble 
ir rep'ar a ble 


pre qed'ence 
pree'e dent («.) 

pre cedent («£0 
prom e niide' 
py ram'i dal 


ex'tant 
dl'verse 


ir rePra ga Ide 
ir rev'o ca ble 


qui'nlne 
quan'da ry 


ex'or else 
en'vel ope (n.) 
ex'qui §tte 


lam'en ta ble 
leg' is la ture 
legfis la tive 


re < 
re flex' 

re course' 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 49 



re source' 


re trlb'u tive 


ti rade' 


re cluse' 


strat'eg ic 


te leg'ra phy 


re search' 


su i ci'dal 


to pog'ra phy 


ro bust/ 


sys tem'ic 


ve'he merit 


ro mance' 


sub sld'ence 


va ga'ry 


rou tine' 


sys'to le • ' 


va'ri o loid 


re-e'osr nize 


sonorous 


va'ri e gat ed 



II. Drill ox Accent. 

I shall absent" myself to-day 'and shall be" absent to- 
morrow. 
Accent 7 the word with the proper ac'cent. C : . i 

Affix' an affix properly, f-f t C.: : 

I shalL comment' on your com'ment. 
We confine' the "animal and erect his con'fines. 
We conjure' him not to con'jure. 

He consorts' -with his con'sort. l. ' ' 

I contest' and so enter the con'test. u .<::';• "J 

We contract' and make a con'tract. - • 

We contrast' and produce the con'trast. 
We convert' and gain con'verts.; . \. i &■. - 

We convict' and confine con' victs. c ■:. ■>. f J 

We desert' into the des'ert without our dessert'. ■ 

We entrance' him at the ren'trance. t 
We escort' with an es'cort. tl aWl i '■ 

I essay' to produce an es'say. . . ; . :. ... : . . . 

We export! our ex'ports. j i i-Li'-" 

We extract! :an ex'tract. / ;/'.. i ,l . ; . - . 

We frequent' the hall and make fra'quenfr calls. 
They misconduct' and are punished for miscon'duct. 
We object' to your ob'ject. 
Prefix' the pre'fix. : : ; :. 

We prelude' . with the proper prel'ude. 
We premise' and give the base of the prem'ise. : > 
I present' the letter and make a pres'ent. 






50 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



The transports will transport' the troops. 

We progress' and make rapid progress. 

We protest' and file our pro'test. 

We record' our names in the rec'ord. 

We refuse' to accept such refuse. 

We reprint' and produce a re'print. 

We subject' him and make him a sub'ject. 

We survey' and make a sur'vey. 



III. Monosyllables Often Mispronoun 

By giving a vowel sound incorrectly. 



CED. 



ant 


chaff 


gas 


more 


rule 


talk 


aunt 


chant 


get 


mourn 


ru§e 


true 


aft 


chair 


haunt 


none 


rinse 


to 


are 


■eatch 


haunch 


nu.de 


root 


toast 


ask 


daunt 


hearth 


ore 


salve 


tour 


bade 


draught 


half 


oar 


staunch 


tube 


balm 


draft 


halves 


parse 


sauce 


tart 


bath 


dance 


hasp 


path 


since 


tune 


bask 


doe§ 


home 


palm 


source 


toad 


brass 


deaf 


jaunt 


pass 


scarce 


two 


basque 


e<w 

on 


jowl 


past 


shaft 


vaunt 


blast 


ere 


joist 


pant 


staff 


vast 


bomb 


e'er 


keg 


prance 


slant 


want 


been 


fast 


laugh 


pork 


shoe 


walk 


bone 


flask 


launch 


porch 


sloth 


wan 


borne 


flaunt 


last 


pour 


smoke 


waft 


bourn 


gaunt 


lance 


prune 


spoke 


wand 


■cask 


gape 


lore 


psiilrn 


stone 


were 


■east 


gasp 


law 


raft 


soon 


wound 


•ealf 


grasp 


lieu 


rasp 


spoon 


wo n't 


■class 


glance 


mass 


roof 


taunt 


wont 


chance 


grant 


mast 


route 


task 


yet 


■craft 


grass 


maul 


rude 


trance 


\vs 


clasp 


glass 


mask 


rood 


truth 


zouaves 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



51 



IV. 


Words Often Mispronounced 




By giving a vowel sound incorrectly. 




after 


di verge' 


ful'mi nate 


ar'id 


di vest' 


fi na'le 


an'swer 


dfverse 


gen'u ine 


a las 


di vorce' 


gla'mour 


a mass 


di reef 


gan'der 


a vast 


di late' 


gauntlet 


ad vance 


di gest' 


gran'a ry 


a slant 


di vuke' 


gua'va 


a gainst 


district 


gua'no 


ap par'ent 


ductile 


bos'tile 


ap pa ra/tus 


di rect'ion 


hov'er 


ad van'tage 


di gest'ion 


buYry 


bas'ket 


di version 


band'some 


barrel 


dorri'i qile 


baunt'ed 


bon'net 


dyn'a mite 


bein'ous 


bom'bast 


en'gine 


ber'o ine 


bay'ou 


ep'oeb 


I'dyl 


ea'ret 


either 


i tal'ics 


•ear'rot 


e'dict 


is'o late 


-ear'at 


en gross' 


im pla'ca ble 


•eask'et 


ex toT 


I so tbeVmal 


•eur'ry 


en cbant 


jaun'dice 


coffee 


e'go tisin 


joc'und 


•eji'unin 


faucet 


jo €ose' 


cbar'y 


fast'en 


ju'ven ile 


chast'en 


fu'tile 


ju'gu lar 


cay enne' 


fuTsome 


kettle 


■eom'mand' 


fet'id 


lla'ma 


com mand'ment fe'brile 


laun'dry 


cjfri'o sure 


forg'er 


ll'lac 


dauntless 


fi'brine 


li'en 


dra'ma 


fore'head 


leisure 


dii'ty 


fur'row 


leath'er 


doc'ile 


for bade' 


laYynx 



52 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION 



laugh'ter 


par'ent 


ru'by 


la'va 


paTfrey 


ra'mor 


le'ver 


pfai'ris 


rep'tile 


li'cben 


pas'tor 


ru'in 


livelong 


pas'ture 


ra'tion al 


ma'trqn 


pastime 


rail'le ry 


mafry 


pla'za 


ra'ti o 


may'or 


planter 


re fro spect 


mon'ad 


piaster 


ra'dix 


niefric 


pu'pil 


rath'er 


measure 


poster 


ru'ral 


mas'ter 


portion 


rapine 


inas'tiff 


portrait 


saun'ter 


mat'ter 


process 


sau'cer 


mo'bile 


prod'uct 


stal'wart 


mar'i time 


prod'uce (n.) 


sup'ple 


mas'cu'line . 


plion'ic 


su'et 


mu se'um 


predate 


suav'i ty 


niau so le'um 


preface 


sqiufrel 


mefcan tile 


prurient 


slan'der 


na'ked 


pa'tri ot 


synod 


liei'tber 


pa tri ot'ic 


syr'up 


nat'rdw 


pa'tri ot isin 


se'nlle 


notn'inoj 


pres/en ta tion 


stir'rup 


o'ral 


pi a'no 


squal'or 


on'ly 


pi a'nist 


tru/ant 


on'er ous 


pifis sauce 


teii'et 


o be&'i ty 


path' way 


tl'ny 


o'ro tunc! 


pa'tri ar-eh 


tu'tor 


ob Pique' 


pat'ron Ize 


tii'o 


pa'tron 


ped'a go gy 


to nia'to 


pat'ron age 


plafi nu in 


tii'ber ose 


pass'a ble 


pleas/ are 


t&p'est ry 


pas'sage 


ploth'o ric 


trlb'une 


pdss'port 


portray' 


tas'scl 


pas'sive 


ra'tion 


was'sail 



, SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



V. Pronunciation and Spelling. 
Some of the following words from the French are 
fully Anglicized; others, partly- so;, while some retain 
the French pronunciation. 



-eou'pon 


gri mace' 


cogn'ac (-edn'yac) 


fra'cas 


gui pure' 


de'pot (de'po) 


pres/tlge 


mo rale' 


memoir (mem'wor) 


purlieu 


ou tre' 


cor'tege (-eo/tazh) 


truffle 


pe lisse' 


bou quet' (boo ka') 


bla .§e' 


phy sique' 


me lee' (ma la') 


de§ §ert' 


rou tine' 


me lange' (ma longz'j 


de tour' 


rou lette' 


quad rille' (ea drll') , ■ 


e meute 


souve nir' 


re gime' (ra zheem') 


fa qade 


rou e' 


vign ette' (vin yet') 


f 1 nesse' 


ta bleau' 


bad'i nage (bad'l nazh) 


fu'gi lier 


trous seaii' 


am a teu/ (am a too 1 /; 


VI. Proper Names 


Often Mispronounced. 


Agassiz (ag'a se 


) 


Frbude (frood) 


Arab (ar'ab) 




Goethe (guY te) 


Aryan (a'ry an) 




Gratiano (gra she a'no) 


Asia (a'she a) 




Guyot (ge'o) 


Avon (a'von) 




Guise (gwez) 


Beatrice (be'a trice) 


Heine (hl'ne) 


Berlin (beYlin) 




Hemans (hem'ans) 


Birigen (bing'en 


) 


Iowa . (l'o wa) 



Calliope (cal ll'o pe) 
Caucasian (-caw -ea'shun) 
Charon (-eha'ron) 
Cheops (ehe'ops) 
Concord (eong'eurd) 
Daniel (dan'yel) 
El Dorado (el do ra'do) 
European (eu ro pe'an) 
Faneuil Hall (fan'el) 



Ixion (ix I'bn) 
Khedive (ka deve'j 
Lewes (lew'is) 
Milan (mil'an) 
Oberon (ob'e ron) 
Orion (o ri'on) 
Orpheus (or'fus) 
Portia (poYshi a) 
Persia (per'shi a) 






54 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



VII. Words of Difficult Enunciation. 

Divide into syllables, and mark tlw accented syllables. 



abominably 

assassination 

anthropophagi 

differentiation 

dicotyledonous 

hypochondriacal 

inexplicable 

intolerable 

impracticable 

indisputable 

incorrigible 



inviolably 

insuperable 

indissolubly 

infinitesimal 

indefatigable 

irremediable 

lugubrious 

meteorological 

monocotyledonous 

numismatics 

particularly 



peculiarly 

peculiarity 

perpendicularly 

ratiocination 

tergiversation 

unintelligible 

unconformability 

uninhabitable 

unhospitable 

valetudinarian 

viviparous 



VIII. Miscellaneous Words. 



ex cur'sion (ex eur'shun) 
honfage (h sounded) 
hum'ble (h sounded) 
hon'or (h silent) 
hon'est (h silent) 
hu'raor (h silent) 
almond (I silent) 
often (of'n) 
soften (sofn) 
this'tle (this'sle) 
whis'tle (wlris'sle) 
QeVtain (qer'ten) 
chas'ten (chas'n) 
lit he (th vocal) 
blithe (th vocal) 



baths (th vocal) 
oafhs (th vocal) 
par quet' (par ka') 
pretty (prit'ty) 
quay (ke) 
span'iel (span'yel) 
subfile (sub'tile) 
sub'tle (siit'tle) 
tor'toise (tor'tis) 
truths (th aspirate) 
vase (vac,e) 
youths (th aspirate) 
kept (t sounded] 
slept (t sounded) 
crept (t sou i) did 



PART II 



PART II, 

PRINCIPLES IN ELOCUTION. 



CHAPTER I. 

EMPHASIS, PAUSES, AND INFLECTIONS. 



SECTION I. 
EMPHASIS. 
I. - Introductory. 



1. Emphasis, as the term is used in its restricted sig-, 
niftcation, is the special force or energy of voice applied 
to words in order to give prominence to leading ideas. 

2. In its widest signification, however, emphasis is 
used to include any means of distinguishing words, 
phrases, or clauses, whether by means of force, or inflec- 
tion, or stress, or quantity, or pauses. 

3. A; word may be made emphatic by an intense 
whisper ; by a strong rising, falling, or circumflex slide ; 
by prolonging vowel or liquid sounds; oi\ by rhetorical 
pauses. 

4. As commonly used, however, emphasis relates to 
the degree or intensity of force. But the stronger the 
emphatic _ force, the _ longer are the [slides, - and the more 

(57) 



58 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

prolonged the vovjcI and the liquid sounds. It may here 
be remarked that the liquid sounds capable of being 
prolonged in emphasis are I, m> n, and r. The short 
vowel sounds and the consonant sounds, with the ex- 
ception of /, m, n, r, cannot be prolonged in emphasis. 

5. " Every sentence;' says Prof. William Itussell, " con- 
tains one or more words which are prominent, and 
peculiarly important, in the expression of meaning. 
These words are marked witli a distinctive inflection ; 
those, in particular, which illustrate the reading of strong 
emotion, or of antithesis. 

6. " The words which are pronounced witli peculiar 
inflection, are uttered with more force than the other 
words in the same sentences. This special force is what 
is called emphasis. Its use is to impress more strik- 
ingly on the mind of the hearer the thought, or portion 
of thought, embodied in the particular word or phrase 
on which it is laid. 

7. "It gives additional energy to important points 
in expression, by causing sounds which are peculiarly 
significant, to strike the ear with an appropriate and 
distinguishing force. It possesses, in regard to the sense 
of hearing, a similar advantage to that of ' relief,' or 
prominence to the eye, in a well-executed picture, in 
which the figures seem to stand out from the canvas. 

8. " Emphasis, then, being the manner of pronouncing 
the most significant words, its office is of the utmost 
importance to an intelligible and impressive utterance. 
It is the manner of uttering emphatic words which 
decides the meaning of every sentence that is read or 
spoken. 

9. "A true emphasis conveys a sentiment clearly and 
forcibly to the mind, and keeps the attention of an 
audience in active sympathy with the thoughts of the 
speaker; it gives full value and effect to all that he 
utters, and secures a lasting impression on the memory." 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 59 

II. Faults in Emphasis. 

In animated conversation, most persons emphasize 
correctly because they know clearly what they wish to 
express ; but, in reading the long and involved sentences 
of literary composition, the faults of untrained readers 
are numerous. 

1. Sometimes the emphasis is misplaced because the 
reader does not clearly comprehend the sense of what 
is read. 

2. Sometimes the emphasis is applied at random, with- 
out reference to prominent ideas. 

3. Sometimes the untrained reader reads in a dull, 
monotonous tone, without any emphasis whatever. 

4. Xot unfrequently the pupil overdoes the emphasis, 
and reads in a jerky, dogmatic manner. 

5. There is often a tendency to a regular recurrence 
of emphasis, combined with the falling inflection, on 
random words, particularly at the end of every line of 
poetry, or of every alternate line, or at the end of every 
phrase or clause. 

III. General Principles of Emphasis. 

1. Words or groups of words that express leading 
ideas are emphatic; those that express what is compar- 
atively unimportant, or that merely repeat what has 
been previously stated, are unempliatic. 

2. Words expressing contrast of ideas are emphatic. 

3. The subject and predicate of a sentence are, in 
general, emphatic. 

4. Articles, pronouns, and connectives are, in general, 
unemjohaticy though any part of speech may sometimes 
become emphatic. 

5. The emphatic words of a sentence are generally 
the words most strongly marked by the rising, falling, 
or circumflex inflection. 



60" SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

IV. Distinction of Emphasis. 

Emphasis may be divided into two kinds, antithetic 
or relative emphasis, and absolute emphasis. 

Antithetic emphasis is applied to words that indicate 
contrast of ideas : Absolute emphasis is used to show 
the importance of a single word or to express feeling, 
emotion, or passion. 

The degree of emphasis to be applied to words may 
be considered as slight, moderate, or strong. 

V. Examples of Antithetic Emphasis. 

1. He is not a friend but an enemy. 

2. He raised a mdrtal to the skies. 
She drew an angel clown. 

3. To be or not to be — that is the question. 

4. I come to bilry Coesar, not to praise him. 

5. As for me, give me liberty or give me death. 
G. You cannot dd wrong without suffering wrong. 

7. He that cannot bear a jest should not make one. 

8. I said my father, not my mdther. 

9. Talent is power ; tact is slcill. 

10. After the snow, the emerald leaves, 
After the harvest, golden sheaves. 

11. He spoke for education, not against it. 

12. The clerk, in letting Scrooge's nephew did. had 
let two other people In. 

13. Put not your trust in money, but put your money 
in trvist. 

14. The ndblcst mind the best contentment has. 

15. Be thou familiar, but by no means ralycr. 

16. Give every man thine car, but few thy /V 

17. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 61 

18. COMPENSATION. 

Polarity, or action and reaction, we meet in every 
part of nature— in darkness and light ; m heat and cold; 
in the ebb and flow of waters; in .ma/c and female; in 
the inspiration and expiration of plants and animals; 
in the .equation of quantity and quality in the fluids of 
the animal &#<:??/ ; in the systole and diastole of the Ae«r£ ; 
in the undulations of fluids and of sound; in the ccn- 
trifugal and centripetal gravity ; in electricity, galvanism, 
and chemical affinity. Superinduce magnetism at o?ic end 
of a needle, the opposite magnetism takes place at the 
&£%e? end. If, the south attracts, the north repels. To 
empty Acre, you must condense £Adr«! An inevitable 
dualism bisects nature, so that each thing is a half and 
suggests andther thing to make it whole ; as, spirit, mat- 
tcr ; man, tubman ; odd, even ; subjective, objective; in, 
but ; upper, under ; motion, rest; yea, nay. 

All things are double, om against another— tit for tht ; 
an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth; blood for blood; 
measure for measure; Itfve for #te?& 6rfc and it shall 
be r/we^ you. He that todtercth shall be watered te- 
sc(/. What will you have? quoth God; p*%~ for it and 
£a/j£ it. Nothing venture, nothing ' have. Thou shalt be 
paid exactly for what thou hast clone, no more, no less. 
Who doth not work shall not e<x£ Emerson. 

VI. Examples of Absolute Emphasis. 

Absolute emphasis is applied to words according to 
their importance in the sentence, or according to the 
degree of emotion or passion to be expressed. When words 
are repeated for the purpose of intensifying emotion, 
each successive repetition is more forcibly emphasized. 

"1. It was a turkey ! He never could have stood upon 
his legs, that bird. He would have snapped 'em short 
off in & minute, like sticks of sealing-wax. 



62 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

2. What is it that gentlemen wish ? What would they 
helve ? 

3. "Revenge! revhige /" the Saxons cried. 

4. Then rose the terrible cry of fire ! fire ! fire ! 

5. We must fight ; I repeat it, sir, we must fight ! 
C. "To arms ! to amis ! to arms ! " they cry. 

7. Happy, hdppy, happy pair ! 
None but the brave, 
None but the brave, 
None but the brave deserves the fair! 

8. CHRISTMAS CAROL. 

"Why, bless my soul!" cried Fred, "who's that?" 
"It's/. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. 
Will you let me in, Fred ? " 

Lei him in ! It is a mercy he did n't shake his arm 
off. He was at home . in five minutes. Nothing could 
be heartier. His niece looked just the same. So did 
Topper, when he came. So did the plump sister, when 
she came. So did every one when they came. IVonder- 
fal party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, won- 
derfid happiness! dickexs. 

9. GRANDMOTHER'S STORY OF BUNKER-niLL BATTLE. 

Then we cried, "The troops are routed! they are beat — 

it can't be doubted ! 
God be thanked, the fight is over ! " — Ah ! the grim old 

soldier's smile ! 
Tell us, tell us why you look so ? (we could hardly 

speak we shook so.) 
"Are they beaten? dre they b&iten ? are they beaten?" 

—"Wait awhile." 
******* 

And we shout, "At last they're dbne for; it's the barges 

they have run for: 
They are beaten ! Uatcn ! beaten' I and the battle 's 

over now." holmes. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 63 

10. INDEPENDENCE. 

But whatever may be our fate, be assured — be assured 
that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, 
and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will 
richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom 
of the 'present, I see the brightness of the future, as the 
sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an im- 
mortal day. When we are in our graves, our children 
will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, 
with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its 
annual return, they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears ; 
not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, 
but of exultation, of gratitude, and oi joy. 

My judgment approves this measure, and my whole 
7i0ar£ is in it. All that I 7* cm?, and all that I dm, and 
all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to 
stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that, live or 
die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration. 

"Webster. 
11. UNCLE TOBY. 

"In a fortnight or three weeks," said my uncle Toby, 
smiling, "he might march." "He will never march, an' 
please your honor, in this world," said the corporal. 
"He will march," said my uncle Toby, rising up with 
one shoe' off. "An' please your honor," said the corporal, 
"he will never march but to his grave." "He shall 
march," cried my uncle Toby; "he shall march to his 
regiment." "He can not stand it," said the corporal. 
"He shall be supported" said my uncle Toby. "Ah, 
well-a-day, do what we can for him," said Trim, main- 
taining his point, " the poor soul will (Me." " He shall 
not" shouted my uncle Toby, with an oath. The Accus- 
ing Spirit which flew up to heaven's chancery, blushed 
as he cjave it in, and the Kecordim* Ano-el, as he wrote 
it down, dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it 
out forever. Sterne . 



64 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

SECTION II. 
PAUSES. 

1. The pauses made in reading or speaking may be 
classed as grammatical, rhetorical, and emphatic or emo- 
tional. 

2. Grammatical pauses are those indicated by punctua- 
tion ; rhetorical pauses are those required by the structure 
of the sentence, or by emphasis ;■ and emphatic pauses, 
those expressive of deep feeling or passion. 

3. These pauses may be relatively long, moderate, or 
short, according to the general style of expression ap- 
propriate to what is read ; but without due attention 
to them, it is impossible properly to emphasize prose, 
or to express the melody of verse. 

i 4. Concerning pauses, Prof. Russell says: "The ces- 
sation of the voice at proper intervals has the same 
effect, nearly, on clauses and sentences with that of 
articulation on syllables, or of pronunciation on words : 
it serves to gather up the sounds of the voice into rela- 
tive portions; and aids in preserving clearness and dis- 
tinction among them. But what those elementary and 
organic efforts do for syllables and words — the minor 
portions of speech — pausing does for clauses, sentences, 
arid entire discourses. 

5. " The great use of pauses is to divide thought into 
its constituent portions, and to leave the mind oppor- 
tunity of contemplating each distinctly, so as .fully to 
comprehend and appreciate it, and, at the same time, to 
perceive its relation to the whole. Appropriate pai 
are of vast importance, therefore, to a correct and im- 
pressive style of delivery; and without them, indeed, 
speech cannot be intelligible. 

6. "Pausing has, further, a distinct office to perform 
in regard to. the effect of feeling as conveyed by utter-t 
ance. Awe and solemnity are expressed by long ces 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 65 

tions of the voice ; and grief, when it is deep, and at 
the same time suppressed, requires frequent and long- 
pauses. 

7. " The general effect, however, of correct and well- 
timed pauses, is what most requires attention. The 
manner of a good reader or speaker is distinguished, in 
this particular, by clearness, impressiveness, and dignity 
arising from the full conception of meaning, and the 
deliberate and distinct expression of it ; while nothing- 
is so indicative of want of attention and of self-com- 
mand, and nothing is so unhappy in its effect, as haste 
and confusion." 

I. Grammatical Pauses. 

Grammatical pauses, or the pauses indicated by punc- 
tuation, have no fixed length. They depend, to some 
extent, on the character of the piece to be read. When 
the general movement or rate is slow, the pauses are 
relatively long ; when the movement is fast, the pauses 
are relatively short. The general principles that govern 
grammatical pauses may be stated as follows : 

1. In general, a slight pause at a comma ; a longer 
pause at a semicolon ; and a still longer jjause at a period. 

2. A full pause, longer than at a period, is required 
at the end of a paragraph of prose, or of a stanza of 
poetry. 

This pause is made to enable the hearer to note the 
subdivisions of a piece, and to afford the reader time 
for a slight rest. 

IT. Ehetorical Pauses. 

1. Rhetorical pauses are pauses not indicated by punc- 
tuation, but which are made in reading, generally for 
the purpose of emphasis or expression. Attention to 
these pauses is absolutety essential to good reading. 

2. The general tendency of pupils to read too fast is 



66 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

owing, ill no small degree, to a neglect of the pauses 
necessary to effective utterance. Both the hearer and 
the reader must have time to think. These pauses, too, 
afford the reader time to renew the breath, and thus 
keep the lungs well supplied with air. 

3. A continuous stream of rapid utterance soon wea- 
ries the hearer, because the speaker neither takes time 
to think, nor allows his hearers time to do so. The 
trained extemporaneous speaker talks with deliberation, 
and the trained reader reads in the same manner. 

4. We read words by groups, not by disconnected 
units. The beginner laboriously calls out each word of 
a sentence independently, with a pause after each word, 
thus : 

" The | black | cat | caught | a | big | rat | in | the ( 
barn." 

A good reader will read this sentence in groups, as 
indicated by the hyphenized words, thus : 

" The-black-cat | caught-a-big-rat | in-the-barn." 

5. Pupils, whose attention is directed to the manner 
in which they run words together in speaking and read- 
ing, with pauses between the groups, will notice that 
adjectives are grouped with the nouns which they mod- 
ify ; adverbs, with verbs or adjectives or other adverbs ; 
prepositions, with their objects ; pronouns, with the words 
they modify ; and auxiliaries, with their principal verbs 
— in other words, that we speak in phrases and clauses. 

6. They will notice, further, that when the subject of 
a verb is a noun, or when it is modified by a phrase 
or a clause, there is a rhetorical pause between the sub- 
ject and the predicate. 

A COMMON FAULT. 

7. "The common fault in regard to pauses." savs 
Prof. Eussell, " is that they are made too short for 
clear and distinct expression. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 67 

8. " Feeble utterance and defective emphasis, along 
with rapid articulation, usually combine to produce this 
fault in young readers and speakers. For, whatever 
force of utterance or energy of emphasis, or whatever 
rate of articulation we accustom ourselves to use, our 
pauses are always in proportion to it, 

9. '"Undue brevity in pausing has a like bad effect 
with too rapid articulation : it produces obscurity and 
confusion in speech, or imparts sentiment in a manner 
which is deficient and unimpressive, and prevents the 
proper effect both of thought and language. 

10. " To be fully convinced how much of the clear- 
ness, force, and dignity of style depends on due pauses, 
we have only to revert for a moment to the effect of 
rapid reading on a passage of Milton, and observe what 
an utter subversion of the characteristic sublimity of the 
author seems to take place. This instance is, no doubt, 
a strong and peculiar one. But a similar result, though 
less striking, may be traced in the hurried reading of any 
piece of composition characterized by force of thought 
or dignity of expression. 

11. " When habitual rapidity of voice, and omission 
of pauses, are difficult to correct, the learner may be 
required to accompany the teacher's voice in the practice 
of sentences. This simultaneous reading, if sufficiently 
long continued, will probably prove effectual for the 
cure of habitual faults. A second stage of progress 
may be entered on, when the learner's improvement will 
warrant it; and he may be permitted to read after the 
teacher. 

12. "Pupils who possess an ear for music, may be 
taught to observe that there is in reading and speaking 
a 'time/ as distinct and perceptible, and as important, 
as in singing, or in performing on any instrument ; and 
that pauses are uniformly measured with reference to 
this time." 



68 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

DRILL EXERCISES. 

13. The careful study of a few selections for the pur- 
pose of marking pauses, emphasis, and inflection, is also 
an excellent exercise in parsing and aualysis. This 
method is a slow one, but it will lead to thoughtful, 
careful, and expressive reading. 

14 For the purpose of aiding pupils to gain a clear 
comprehension of this subject, general principles are 
applied under a number of definite rules, which are 
illustrated by copious examples. The value of thorough 
drill on these examples cannot be overestimated. 

15. If any teachers object to formal rules, the follow- 
ing remarks of Prof. Russell are commended to their 
attention : 

16. " Persons, even, who admit the use of rules on other 
subjects, contend, that, in reading and speaking, no rules 
are necessary ; that a correct ear is a sufficient guide, 
and the only safe one. If, by a ' correct ear,' be meant 
a vague exercise of feeling or of taste, unfounded on a 
principle, the guidance will prove to be that of conjec- 
ture, fancy, or whim. But if, by a ' correct ear,' be 
meant an intuitive exercise of judgment or of taste, 
consciously or unconsciously recognizing a principle, 
then is there virtually implied a latent rule ; and the 
instructor's express office, is, to aid his pupil in detect- 
ing, applying, and retaining that rule. 

17. " Systematic rules are not arbitrary ; they are 
founded on observation and experience. No one who is 
not ignorant of their meaning and application, will ob- 
ject to them, merely because they are systematic, well 
defined, and easily understood : every reflective student 
of any art, prefers systematic knowledge to conjectural 
judgment, and seizes with avidity on a principle, be- 
cause he knows that it involves those rules which are 
the guides of practice." 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 69 

III. Rules for Rhetorical Pauses. 

Rule I. A rhetorical pause should be made between the 
subject and the predicate of a sentence when the subject is 
emphatic, or when it consists of a phrase or a clause, or 
of a noun modified by a phrase or a clause. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Art | is long, and time | is fleeting, 
And the grave | is not its goal. 

2. To err | is human, to forgive, divine. 

3. To reach the Indies | was the object of Columbus. 

4. How he found his way out | is not known. 

5. Whom the gods love | die young | was said of you. 

6. Who steals my purse | steals trash. 

7. No wind that blew | was bitterer than he. 

8. Not to know me | argues yourself | unknown. 

9. It was for him | that the sun had been darkened, 
that the rocks | had been rent, that the dead | had risen, 
that all nature | had shuddered at the sufferings of her 
expiring God. Death | had lost its terrors | and pleasure 
its charms. 

Turn to any unmarked selection in Part III. and require pupils to 
point out further illustrations of this rule. 

Rule II. Make a rhetorical pause before a clause used 
as a predicate nominative, or as the object of a verb. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. The truth is | he knows nothing about the subject. 

2. It was in midwinter | that the Pilgrims landed at 
Plymouth. 

3. I do not know | where he went. 

4. He did not say [ when he should go. 

5. I wish | that friends were' always true, 
And motives always pure ; 
I wish | the good were not so few, 
I wish ! the bad were fewer. 



70 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Rule III. Make a rhetorical pause after introductory 
or transposed adverbial words, phrases, or clauses. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Slowly and sadly | we laid him down. 

2. Forth in the pleasing spring | thy beauty walks. 

3. In their ragged regimentals | stood the ' old conti- 
nentals. 

4. If he did that | he ought to be punished. 

5. During that terrible storm | the ship foundered. 

6. Who she was | nobody knows. 

7. In all its history | the Constitution has been benefi- 
cent. 

8. And up the steep | barbarian monarchs ride. 

9. Down | came the blow ! but in the heath 
The erring blade found bloodless sheath. 

Rule IV. Unless the phrases or clauses are short or 
very closely connected, make a rhetorical pause before 
adjective or adverbial phrases or clauses. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. There is a reaper | whose name is Death. 

2. He is the same man | that you spoke of. 

3. I will go | when you are ready. 

4. Let me have men about me | that are fat. 

5. The swallows | that build their nests in the old 
barn | migrate | when winter comes. 

G. Our fathers raised their flag against a power | to 
which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subjuga- 
tion, Rome, in the height of her glory, is not to be 
compared — a power | which has dotted the surface of 
the whole globe | with her possessions | and military 
posts; whose morning drum-beat, following the sun in 
his course, and keeping pace with the hours, daily circles 
the earth | with one continuous and unbroken strain | 
of the martial airs of England. , rER . 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 71 

Rule V. Make a 'pause he/ore and after adverbs or 
adverbial phrases transposed so as to break the regular 
order of arrangement 

EXAMPLES. 

1. The plowman | homeward | plods his weary way. 

2. And some | to happy homes | repair. 

3. As we | to higher levels | rise. 

4. Who | of this crowd | to-night | shall tread 
The dance | till daylight | gleam again ? 

5. If Memory | o'er their tomb | no trophies raise. 

6. Await | alike | the inevitable hour. 

7. Their furrow | oft | the stubborn glebe has broke. 



Ride VI. In sentences introduced by idiomatic it or 
there, make a rhetorical pause before the suhject-phrase 
or clause that is placed after the predicate. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. There came to the beach | a poor exile of Erin. 

2. It is not known | how the prisouer made his escape. 

3. It is not true | that the poet paints a life that does 
not exist. 

4. There lies | on the table before me | all that lie 
had written of his latest and last story. 

Rule VII. Make a rhetorical pause after predicate 
adjectives used to introduce a sentence, and after nouns 
or pronouns in the objective case when they are trans- 
posed so as to come before the verbs which govern them. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Sweet | are the uses of adversity. 

2. Few and -short | were the prayers we said. 

3. How sweet and solemn | is this midnight scene. 

4. Thee | I revisit now | with bolder wing. 

5. And all the air | a solemn stillness | holds. 



72 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Rule VIII. When an ellipsis of the verb occurs in a 
sentence, make a rhetorical pause. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Homer was the greater genius ; Virgil | [was] the 
better artist. In the one | we most admire the man ; in 
the other — [we most admire] the work. 

2. Death had lost its terrors, and pleasure | [had 
lost] its charms. 

3. Their palaces were houses | not made with hands ; 
their diadems | [were] crowns of glory which should 
never fade away. 

4. Lands | he could measure, terms and tides | [he 
could] presage. 

5. Thy waters wasted them while they were free, and 
many a tyrant [has wasted them] since. 

Require the class to find five additional examples. 

Rule IX. Unless the grammatical connection is very 
close, a short pause should be made at the end of every 
line of poetry, to mark the poetic rhythm. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. PARADISE LOST. 

Anon | out of the earth | a fabric huge | 
Rose like an exhalation, with the sound | 
Of dulcet symphonies, and voices sweet, 
Built like a temple, where pilasters | round 
Were set, and Doric pillars, overlaid | 
With golden architrave. Miltos, 

2. POWER OF MUSIC. 

'T was at the royal feast, for Persia won | 

By Philip's warlike son — 
Aloft in awful state | 
The godlike hero sate | 

On his imperial throne. drydux. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 73 

3. THE SHIPWRECK. 

'T was twilight, for the sunless day went down | 

Over the waste of waters, like a veil | 
Which, if withdrawn, would but disclose the frown | 

Of one | whose hate | is masked but to assail. 
Thus to their hopeless eyes | the night was shown, 

And grimly darkled o'er their faces pale, 
And the dim, desolate deep ; twelve days | had Fear | 
Been their familiar, and now Death | was here. 

Byron. 

4. THE LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 

All these | must first be trampled down | 
Beneath our feet | if we would gain | 

In the bright fields of fair renown | 

The right | of eminent domain. Longfellow. 



IV. Emphatic Pauses. 

Rule I. Emphatic pauses occur when the reader desires 
to call marked attention to some word or group of words. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. The penalty was | | death. 

2. My answer would be | a bloiv. 

3. You call me dog ; and for these courtesies 
I '11 lend you | thus \ much \ moneys. 

4. Hath a dog \ money ? Is it possible | 

A cur | | can lend | ] | three \ \ thousand | [ ducats ! 

5. Rider and horse, friend, foe, in one \ red \ burial \ 
blent. 

G. They did not see one \ man, not \ 6ne \ woman, | | 
not | one \ child, not one | four-footed beast \ \ of any de- 
scription | | whatever. One \ dead \ uniform \ silence \ 
reigned \ over the whole region . burke. 



74 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

7. The love that loves a scarlet coat 
Should be | | more Uniform. 

8. BUNKER HILL. 

Just a glimpse (the air is clearer), they are nearer | 

nearer | | nearer, 
When a flash — a curling smoke-wreath — then a crash — 

the steeple shakes ; 
The deadly truce is ended ; | | the tempest's shroud is 

rended; | | 
Like a morning mist it gathered, | | like a thunder cloud 

| | it breaks. 

All through those hours of trial, I had watched a calm 

clock-dial, 
As the hands kept creeping, \ \ creeping, | | they were 

creeping | | round to four. holmes. 



V. Eecapitulatiox of Pauses. 

1. In general, a rhetorical pause should he made between 
the subject and the predicate, when the subject is emphatic, 
or when it consists of a p>hrase, a clause, or a noun mod- 
ified by a phrase or a clause. 

2. A rhetorical pause should be made whenever the 
regular order of a sentence is broken by the inversion of 
words, phrases, or clauses. 

3. An emphatic pause occurs before any word that is 
very strongly emphatic, or to wliich the reader or speaker 
desires to call marked attention. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 75 

SECTION III. 

INFLECTION. 

I. Introductory Eemarks. 

1. In all good speaking or reading, there must be 
ever-varying upward and downward slides of the voice. 
Inflection is a means, not only of expressing emotion, 
passion, and emphasis, but, also, of conveying the finer 
distinctions and contrasts of ideas, and the more delicate 
shades of feeling and sentiment. 

2. Inflection forms an important element of emphasis : 
for emphasis consists, not only in force, but also in the 
slides and in quantity. 

3. Beading, when it lacks the melody of varied em- 
phasis and inflection, becomes like the monotonous 
droning of children who laboriously pronounce the suc- 
cessive words of their reading lesson in the conven- 
tional school tone. 

4. In animated conversation, and in the reading of 
simple stories, the inflections take care of themselves 
without thought by the speaker or reader; but in the 
long and often inverted sentences of finished prose or 
poetry, involving a higher and more complicated order 
of thought, the proper application of emphasis and 
inflection requires some knowledge of the principles of 
elocution. 

5. While it is true that a clear conception of the 
spirit and meaning by the reader is essential to good 
reading, it is equally true that, having the right con- 
ception, the reader may fail to convey it to the hearer, 
from ignorance of the principles that govern the correct 
expression of thought and feeling. 

6. Good reading like fine singing, is the result of 
systematic training — is the product of culture and art. 
There are good natural voices both for singing and 



76 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

reading, but a fine singer, without training in the science 
and art of music, is as rare as is a good reader of gen- 
eral English literature, who is ignorant of the principles 
of elocution, and untrained in the management of the 
voice. 

7. The real object of school elocution is, not to enable 
pupils to read by imitation a few selected pieces in the 
style of an actor, but to make thoughtful and intelli- 
gent readers independent of the assistance of teachers. 

8. One reason for the full treatment of inflection in 
this book is the great importance of the subject as a 
means of expressive and impressive reading. 

9. Another reason is the cursory manner in which 
the few introductory rules and illustrations are taken 
up in the grammar school. Teachers of high schools 
and normal schools are aware of the fact that many of 
their pupils come into school not only ignorant of the 
principles of inflection, but also so untrained in the 
management of the voice that they cannot give the 
correct inflections even when indicated, and sometimes 
cannot even imitate them when given by the teacher. 

10. It is not unreasonable to expect that, in high and 
normal schools, there should be training enough to 
enable students themselves to apply the general prin- 
ciples of elocution ; and that there should be practice 
enough to secure some flexibility in the management of 
the voice. 

11. Expression in reading depends largely on the vari- 
ety produced by the proper and effective application of 
the slides. There is no excuse for the neglect that leads 
to the monotonous and lifeless style of reading charac- 
teristic of many high schools and colleges. 

"This school-tone," says Prof. Russell, "can be tol- 
erated only in a law paper, a state document, a bill of 
lading, or an invoice, in the reading of which the mere 
distinct enunciation of the words is deemed sufficient 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 77 

In other circumstances, it kills, with inevitable certainty, 
everything like feeling or expression." 

12. The careful study of an extract from some stand- 
ard author, for the purpose of marking it for inflection, 
emphasis, and pauses, is an intellectual discipline of no 
mean order. It combines, in one lesson, rhetoric, gram- 
mar, and elocution. 

13. It matters little whether aspiring elocutionists can 
or can not render effectively such pieces as " The Haven," 
" The Bells," or " Catiline's Defiance " ; but it is a mat- 
ter of solid importance for them to be able to read 
intelligently and effectively such extracts as Macaulay's 
" Puritans," Bryant's " Winds," Byron's " Apostrophe 
to the Ocean," one of Webster's " Speeches," or an ex- 
tract from Milton or Shakespeare. The trained reader 
is able not only to read well, but also to give good 
reasons for reading with good taste, discrimination, and 
judgment. 

14. As an aid both to teachers and pupils in apply- 
ing principles and rules, a considerable number of 
extracts and examples are marked for inflection, em- 
phasis, and pauses. When these have been carefully 
studied and read, pupils ought to be able to apply, to 
some extent at least, principles and rules to unmarked 
extracts, thus becoming independent of imitation and 
of teachers. 

II. Distinctions of Inflection. 

1. Inflection may be defined as an upward or down- 
ward slide of the voice, generally on the emphatic word 
or words of a sentence. In words of more than one 
syllable, the inflection falls chiefly on the vowel of the 
accented syllable ; hence the mark of inflection is placed 
over the vowel in the accented syllable. 

2. The rising inflection, indicated by the acute accent 



78 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

('), is used in direct questions, and, in general, when- 
ever the sense is incomplete. 

3. The falling inflection, indicated by the grave accent 
( N ), is used in complete declarative, exclamatory, or very 
emphatic statements, and, in general, wherever the sense 
is complete, or does not depend on something to follow. 

4. The circumflex, a combination of the rising and 
falling inflections on the same sound or word, indicated 
thus ( v or A ), is used in surprise, .|arcasm, irony, wit, 
humor, and in expressing a pun* or a double meaning. 
The rising circumflex: is used in place of the direct ris- 
ing inflection to add force to the emphasis, and the 
falling circumflex in place of the direct falling inflec- 
tion. 

5. The monotone ( ), that is, one uniform tone, is 

merely the absence of any marked rising or falling slide 
above or below the general level of the sentence. 



III. Length of Slides. 

1. The length of the rising or the falling inflection, 
in ascending or descending the scale, depends on the 
force of emphasis applied to words marked by inflection. 

2. The degrees of inflection may be roughly distin- 
guished as corresponding to the second, third, fifth, and 
eighth notes in the musical scale, including the semi- 
tones, or chromatic notes, of the minor second, third, 
fifth, and eighth notes. 

3. The "second" and "third" are classed as the un- 
emotional slides, as contrasted with the " fifth " and 
" eighth," which are the emotioned inflections. 

IV. The Slide of the Second. 

1. The inflection of the second 'is a very slight up- 
ward or downward slide of the voice, expressing what 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 79 

may be termed the current melody of the sentence, in 
quiet conversation and in unemotional reading. It is 
the distance in tone between C and D, or Do and lie 
on the scale in music. 

2. " The simple rise and fall of the second, and per- 
haps its wave," says Dr. Rush, " when used for plain 
narration, or for the mere statement of an unexcited 
idea, is the only intonated voice of man that does not 
spring from a passionate, or, in some degree, an earnest 
condition of his mind. If we listen to his ignorance, 
doubt, selfishness, arrogance, and injustice, we hear the 
vivid forms of vocal expression, proceeding from these 
and related passions. 

3. " Thus we have the rising intervals of the fifth and 
octave, for interrogatives, not of wisdom but of envious 
curiosity ; the downward third, fifth, and octave, for dog- 
matic or tyrannical command ; waves for the surprise 
of ignorance, the snarling of ill-humor, and the curling 
voice, along with the curling lip of contempt ; the pierc- 
ing height of pitch for the scream of terror; the semi- 
tone, for the peevish whine of discontent, and for the 
puling cant of the hypocrite and the knave, who cover 
beneath the voice of kindness, the designs of their craft. 

4. "Then listen to him on those rare occasions, when 
he forgets himself and his passions, and has to utter a 
simple idea, or plainly to narrate ; and you will hear 
the second, the least obtrusive interval of the scale, 
in the admirable harmony of Nature, made the simple 
sign of the unexcited sentiment of her wisdom and 
truth." 

V. Inflection Drill on the Second. 

1. Count, in a gentle tone, from one to twenty, with 
the slight rising inflection, thus — one, two, thre'e, four, etc. 

2. Count from one to twenty with the slight falling 
inflection, thus — one, two, etc. 



80 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

3. Count with alternate rising and falling, thus — one, 
two, thre'e, lour, etc., to thirty. 

4. Sound the long vocals, a, e, I, 6, u. : (1) With the 
rising second. (2) With the falling second. (3) Alter- 
nate rising and falling. 

VI. The Slide of the Third. 

1. The slide of the third corresponds to the interval, 
on the scale, between C and JS, or Bo and Mi. 

2. When the voice rises on a word through an inter- 
val of two tones, or a major third, it expresses moderate 
emphasis, interrogation, contrast, or slight surprise ; when 
the voice falls through the same interval, it expresses 
moderate emphasis, assertion, command, contrast, or the 
conclusion of a proposition. 

3. The inflection of the third is the prevailing slide 
of animated and earnest conversation, and of the slightly 
emphatic words of narrative, didactic, or descriptive com- 
position. It is the slide of antithesis in contrasted words. 

VII. Unemotional Slides. 

The slides of the second and third are the senten- 
tial or unemotional inflections as contrasted with the 
fifth and the eighth, which are the slides of emotion and 
passion. 

VIII. Inflection Drill on the Third. 

1. Count, with moderate force and emphasis, from one 
to twenty with the rising third, thus: one, two. three, etc. 

2. Count from one to twenty with the falling third, 
thus : one, two, three, etc. 

3. Count with alternate rising and falling third, thus : 
one, two, three', four, etc. 

4. Will you gd or stay I 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 81 

IX. The Slides of the Fifth and the Eighth. 

1. The slide of the fifth corresponds to the interval 
between C and G, or Do and Sol, and the slide of the 
eighth, or the octave, to the interval between C and 
C, or Do and Do. 

2. When the voice rises through the interval of the fifth, 
it expresses impassioned interrogation, extreme surprise, 
or strong negation ; when it falls through the same in- 
terval, it expresses deep conviction, strong determination, 
emphatic declaration, stern command, or strong emotion. 

3. Under the influence of intense excitement or pas- 
sion, the voice sometimes rises or falls through the 
whole octave. The rising octave expresses amazement, 
astonishment, excited interrogation, intense irony, and 
the falling octave expresses fierce determination, impas- 
sioned scorn, imprecation, and defiance. 

4. Thus, when Douglas cries out under the influence 
of intense auger — 

"And dar'st thou then 
To beard the lion in his den, 
The Douglas in his Mil?" 
The voice on " hall " rises through the whole octave. And 
when Coriolanus cries out : " Measureless liar," the voice 
on "measureless" falls through the octave. 

5. The words " ah ! indeed ! " uttered so as to express 
the greatest possible degree of astonishment, illustrate 
the rising octave. 

X. Inflection Drill. 

1. Sound the long vocals, a, e, I, 5, u, with the rising- 
fifth; the falling fifth. 

2. Sound the long vocals, a, e, I, 5, u, with the rising 
eighth ; with the falling octave. 

3. Count from one to twenty with the rising fifth; 
the falling fifth. 



82 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

I. THE RISING INFLECTION. 

1. The rising inflection calls attention to wlxat is to 
follow. It is the inflection of incomplete statement, of 
appeal, of inquiry, and of negative antithesis. 

2. It is the prevailing inflection of sentiment, of tender- 
ness, and of pathos. 

3. It is the characteristic inflection used in stating 
what is comparatively unimportant, trite, questionable, 
doubtful, or parenthetical. 

EULES FOR THE ElSING INFLECTION. 

Hide I. Questions requiring yes or no for an answer 
have the rising inflection, except when very emphatic. 

EXAMPLES. 

[Rising Third. — Light Emphasis.] 

1. Have you recited your lessons? 

2. Ts it, man, with such discordant noises, 

With such accursed instruments as these, 
Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices, 
And jarrest the celestial harmonics? 
3. Breathes there the man with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself hath said, 

This is my own, my native land ! 
Whose heart hath ne'er within him hiirucd, 
As hdmc his footsteps he hath turned, 
From wandering on si foreign strand? 
[Fifth and Eirjldli. — Strong Emphasis.] 

4. Hates any man the thing he would not Tcillt 

5. What ! wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee 
twice ? 

G. And dar'st thou then 

To beard the lion in his den, 
The Douglas in his liall! 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 83 

7. Art thou a friend to Roderick ? — ~Nb. 
Thou dar'st not call thyself his foe ? 

8. Is it come to this? Shall an inferior magistrate, 
a governor, who holds his whole power of the Roman 
people, in a Roman province, within sight of Italy, 
hind, scourge, torture, and put to an infamous death, a 
Roman citizen ? Shall neither the cries of innocence 
expiring in agony, the tears of pitying spectators, the 
majesty of the Roman Commonwealth, nor fear of the 
justice of his country, restrain the merciless monster, 
who, in the confidence of his riches, strikes at the very 
root of liberty, and sets mankind at defiance? And 
shall this man escape ? Fathers, it must not be ! It 
must not be, unless you would undermine the very 
foundations of social safety, strangle justice, and call 
down anarchy, mdssacre, and ruin on the Common- 
wealth : Cicero. 

9. Canst thou bind the tinicom with his band in the 
furrow ? or will he harrow the valleys after thee ? Wilt 
thou trust him because his strength is great ? or wilt 
thou leave thy labor to him ? 

Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks ? or 
wings and feathers unto the ostrich? Canst thou draw 
out leviathan with a hook ? or his tdnguc with a cord 
which thou lettest down ? Canst thou put a hook into 
his nose ? or bore his jaw through with a thorn ? Wilt 
thou play with him as with a bird ? or wilt thou bind 
him for thy maidens? Canst thou fill his skin with 
barbed irons ? or his head with fish spears ? Book of Job. 

Rule II Words repeated in surprise take (lie rising 
inflection, and are emphatic. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Must I endure all this? All Ms? Ay, more. 



84 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

2. catiline's reply. 
" Banished from B6me ! " "What's banished but set free 
From daily contact with the things I loathe? 
" Tried and convicted traitor ! " Who says this ? croly. 

3. SQUEERS. 

"Who cried stbj)?" said Squeers, turning savagely 
round. 

" 7 V ," said Nicholas, stepping forward. " Tliis must not 
go on." 

"Must not go on!" cried Squeers, almost in a shriek. 

"No!" thundered Nicholas. dickens. 

Call on the class to find five additional illustrations. 

Bide III Words and pthrases of address, unless very 
emphatic, take the slight rising inflection. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Sir, I believe the hour has come. 

2. Mr. President, I desire to offer a resolution. 

3. Friduds, Eomans, countrymen, lend me your ears. 

4. Fellow-citizens, the time for action has come. 

5. G6od friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up 
To such a sudden flood of mutiny. 

Call on each pupil to find one additional illustration. 
EXCEPTION. 

6. comrades ! warriors ! Thracians! if we must ficrht. 
let us fbht for ourselves. 

7. Princes ! potentates I warriors ! 

Bide IV. The language of entreaty, coaxing, or flat- 
tery, takes the rising inflection. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. ARTHUR IX KINO JOHN. 

Alas, what need you be so boisterous-ro ?<///< ? 
I will not stmigglc; I will stand stone-still. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 85 

For heaven's sake, Hubert, let me not be bound; 

Nay, hear me, Hubert; drive but these men aiv&y, 

And I will sit as quiet as a lamb; 

I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word, 

Nor look upon the iron dngerly : 

Thrust but these men away, and 111 forgive you, 

Whatever torment yOU do yM me tO. Shakespeare. 

2. MRS. caudle's curtain lectuees. 
I. 

Now, Caudle, dear, do let us talk comfortably. After 
all, love, there's a good many folks who, I dare say, 
don't get on half so well as we've done. We've both 
our little tampers, perhaps ; but you are aggravating ; 
you must own that, Caudle. We'll, never mind ; we won't 
talk of it; I won't scold you now. 

ii. 

I'm sure I don't object to your being a Mason; not 
at all, Caudle. I dare say it 's a very good thing ; I dare 
say it is : it 's only your making a secret of it that vexes 
me. But you'll tell me — you'll tell your own Margaret? 
You won't? You're a wretch, Mr. Caudle. harrold. 

Bide V. Negative expressions, whether of words, phrases, 
clauses, or sentences, take the rising inflection when they 
carry the attention forward to a contrasted affirmation, 
or backward to an affirmative statement. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. I come not here to talk. 

Ye know too iuell the story of our thrcllldom. 

2. The battle, sir, is not to the strdng alone. 
It is to the vigilant,, the active, the brave. 

3. Tell me not, in mournful numbers, 
Life is but an empty dream; 
For the soul is dead that slumbers, 
And things are not what they seem. 



86 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

4. I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts; 
1 am no orator, as Brutus is : 

But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man. 

5. Cleon hath a million acres — ne'er a one have 1' : 
Cleon dwelleth in a palace — in a cottage, Y ; 
Cleon hath a dozen fortunes — not a penny, V ; 
But the poorer of the twain is Cleon, and n6t V. 

6. FREEDOM. 

Freedom ! thou art not, as poets dream, 

A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs, 

And wavy tresses gushing from the cap 

With which the Boman master crowned his sldve, 

When he took off the gyres. A bearded man, 

Armed to the teeth, art thou. bkyant. 

7. THE OCEAN. 

The armaments | which thunderstrike the walls | 
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake, 
And monarchs | tremble in their capitals, 
The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make 
Their clay creator | the vain title | take | 
Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war; — 
These, are thy toys, and as the snowy flake \ 
They melt into thy yeast of waves, which mar | 
Alike | the Armada's pride | or spoils of Trafalgar. 

Byron. 
8. LIBERTY. 

Tell me not of the honor of belonging to a free 
country. I ask, does our liberty bear generous fruits: 
Does it exalt us in manly spirit, in public virtue, above 
countries trodden under foot by dhpotism 1 — Tell me 
not of the extent of our country. I care not how large 
it is, if it multiply degenerate men. Speak not ^ 
our prosperity. Better be one of a poor people, plain 
in manners, reverencing God, and respecting themselves, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 87 

than belong to a rich country, which knows no higher 
good than riches. channhjg. 

9. WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE ? 

What constitutes a State ? 

Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, 
Thick ivdll or moated gate; 

Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned. 
Not bays and broad-armed ports, 

Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride : 
Not starred and spangled courts 

Where low-bred baseness wafts perfume to pride: 
No; men, high-minded men; men, who their duties know; 

But know their rights; and knowing, dare maintain; 
Prevent the lono[-aimed blow, 

And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain. 
These constitute a State. jones. 

Call on pupils to find additional examples. 

Rule VI Incomplete expressions, lohether of phrases or 
clauses, when they carry the mind forward to something to 
be stated, require the rising infection. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Born to inherit the most illustrious monarchy in 
the icorld, aud early united to the object of her choice, 
the amiable princess, happy in herself, and joyful in 
her future prospects, little anticipated the fate that was 
so soon to overtake her. 

2. THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 

And yet, do you not think, that who so could, by 
adequate description, bring before you that winter of the 
Pilgrims, its brief sunshine, the nights of storm, slow 
waning; the damp and icy breath, felt to the pillow of 
the dying; its destitutions, its contrasts with all their 
former experience in life ; its utter insulation and loneli- 
ness ; its death-beds and burials; its memories; its ap- 



88 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

prehensions ; its hopes; the consultations of the pr&dent; 
the prayers of the pious; the occasional cheerful hymn, 
in which the strong heart threw off its burthen, and, 
asserting its un vanquished nut arc, w< nt (up, like a bird 
of dawn, to the skies} — do ye not think that whoso 
could describe them calmly waiting in that defile, lonelier 
and darker than Thermopylae-, for a morning that might 
never dawn, or might show them, when it did, a mightier 
arm than the Persian, raised as in act to strike, would 
he not sketch a scene of more difficult and rarer hero- 
ism? A scdne, as Wordsworth has said, "melancholy, 
yea, dismal, yet consolatory and full of joy ;" a scene, 
even better fitted, to succor, to emit, to lead, the for- 
lorn hopes of all great cduscs, till time shall be no more. 

Choatl. 
3. THE STRIFE. 

Notice that the last four stanzas constitute one sentence. 

The wish that of the living whole 

No life may fail beyond the grdrc — 



Derives it not from what we have 
The likest God within the souU 

Are God and nature then at strife, 

That nature lends such evil dreams ? 
So cclreful of the type she seems, 

So careless of the single life, 

That /, considering everywhere 

Her secret meaning in her d^eds, 
And finding that of fifty seeds 

She often brings but one to bear — 

T falter where I firmly trod ; 

And, falling with my weight of cares 
Upon the great world's ^tar-stairs, 

That slope through darkness up to God, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 89 

I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, 
And gather dust and chaff, and call 
To what I feel is Lord of all, 

And faintly trust the larger hope. 

Tennyson's In Memoriam. 
4. THE LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 

The low desire, the base design, 
That makes another's virtues ldss ; 

The revel of the treacherous wine, 
And all occasions of excess ; 

The longing for ignoble things, 

The strife for triumph more than truth ; 

The hardening of the heart that brings 
Irreverence for the dreams of youth ; 

All thoughts of ill ; all evil deeds 

That have their root in thoughts of ill ; 

Whatever hinders or impedes 
The action of the noble will, — 

All these must first be trampled down 
Beneath our feet, if we would gain 

In the bright fields of fair renown, 

The right of eminent domain. Longfellow. 

Rule VII. Conditional phrases and clauses, when in- 
troductory, take the rising inflection, because the sense .is 
carried forward to the principcd statements on which they 
d.epend. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. FROM "THE ARMORY." 

Were half the power that fills the world with terror ; 

Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts, 
Given to redeem the human mind from error, 

There were no need of arsenals or forts. Longfellow. 



90 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

2. FROM "JULIUS CESAR." 

As Caesar Idvccl me, I weep for him ; as he was fortu- 
nate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him ; but, 
as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his 
love; joy for his fortune; honor for his valor; and 
death for his ambition. 

3. WATER. 

Of all inorganic substances, acting in their own proper 
nature, and without assistance or combination, water is 
the most wonderful. If we think of it as the source of 
all the changefulness and beauty which we have seen 
in clouds; then as the instrument by which the earth 
we have contemplated was modeled into symmetry, and 
its crags chiseled into grace; then, as in the form of 
sndw, it robes the mountains it has made with that 
transcendent light which we could not have conceived if 
we had not seen ; then as it exists in the foam of the 
tdrrcnt — in the iris which spans it, in the morning mist 
which rises from it, in the deep crystalline pools which 
mirror its hanging shore, in the broad hike and glanciug 
river ; finally, in that which is to all human minds the 
best emblem of unwearied, unconquerable j)6wcr, the wild, 
various, fantastic, tameless unity of the sea ; what shall 
we compare to this mighty, this universal element, for 
glory and for beauty ? or how shall we follow its eternal 
chdngefidncss of feeling ? It is like trying to paint a 

SOUl RlSK.N. 

4. from Webster's speeches. 
i. 
If disastrous weir sweep our commerce from the 6 
andthcr generation may ren&w it; if it exhaust our treas- 
ury, future industry may replenish it ; if it desolate and 
lay waste our fields, still, under a new cultivation, they 
will grow green again, and ripen to future harvests, 

ii. 
If discord and disunion shall wound it; if party strife 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 91 

and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it; if folly 
and madness, if uneasiness under salutary restraint, shall 
succeed to separate it from that Union, by which alone 
its existence is made sure, it will stand, in the e*nd, by 
the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked ; 
it will stretch forth its arm with whatever of vigor it 
may still retain, over the friends who gather round it ; 
and it will fall, if fall it must, amid the proudest mon- 
uments of its glory and on the very spot of its origin. 

Require each pupil, at the next lesson, to read one additional illus- 
tration, selected from some extract in this book. 

Rule VIII. In poetic description, whether of prose or 
verse, the prevailing inflection is the slight rising inflection 
of the " third." 

EXAMPLES. 

1. FROM WHITTIER'S " RANGER." 

Nowhere fairer, sweeter, rarer, 
Does the golden-locked fruit-bearer, 

Through his painted woodlands stray, 
Than where hillside oaks and benches 
Overlook the long, blue reaches, 
Silver coves and pebbled benches, 

And green isles of Casco Bay : 

Nowhere day, for delay, 
With a tenderer look beseeches, 

" Let me with my charmed earth stay." 

2. WATER. 

Gleaming in the deV-drop, singing in the summer rain, 
shining in the ice-gem till the trees seem turned to 
living jewels, spreading a golden vdil over the setting 
sun, or a white gauze around the midnight moon ; sport- 
ing in the cataract, sleeping in the glacier, dancing in 
the hail-shower, folding bright snow-curtains softly above 
the wintry world, and weaving the many-colored iris, 



92 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

that seraph's zone of the sky, whose warp is the rain 
of e'arth, whose woof is the sunbeam of hdaven, all 
checkered over with celestial flowers by the mystic hand 
of rarefaction — still always it is beautiful, that blessed 
cold water ! No poison bubbles on its brink — its foam 
brings not madness and murder — no blood stains its liquid 
glass — pale widows and starving orphans weep not burn- 
ing tears in its clear ddpths — no drunkard's shrieking 
ghost from the grave curses it in words of despair I 
Speak but, my friends ; would you exchange it for the 
demon's drink — alcohol ? 

A shout like the roar of the tempest answered "No! 
NoM" DESI0! „ 

3. THE VOICE OF SPUING. 

The fisher is out on the sunny sda ; 

And the reindeer bounds o'er the pasture frde ; 

And the pine has a fringe of softer gre'en, 

And the moss looks bright, where my loot hath been. 

From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain. 

They are sweeping on to the silvery main, 

They are flashing down from the mountain brows, 

They are flinging spray o'er the forest boughs, 

They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves ; 

And the earth resounds witli the joy of waves. 

Hemaxs. 

Rule IX. Pathos and tender feeling incline the voice 
to the slight rising inflection. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. BABIE BELL. 

And what did dainty Babie Bell ? 
She only crossed her little hands ! 
She only looked more meek and fair ! 
We parted back her silken hair ; 
We laid some buds upon her brow — 
Death's bride arrayed in flbwers ! lldbicr. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 93 

2. THE HANGER. 

When the shadows vail the meadows, 
And the sunset's golden ladders 

Sink from twilight's walls of gray — 
From the window of my dreaming, 
I can see his sickle gleaming, 
Cheery-voiced can hear him teaming 

Down the locust-shaded way ; 

But away, swift away, 
Fades the fond, delusive see'ming, 

And I kneel again to pray. whittier. 

Rule X. In a scries of words or phrases, if the par- 
ticulars enumerated are unimportant, or if they are to he 
taken as constituting a whole, each particular, except the 
last in a closing series, takes the rising inflection. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. The siin, the planets, their satellites, the comets, 
and the meteors, compose the solar system. 

2. The solar system consists of the sun, the planets, 
their satellites, the comets, and the meteors. 

3. The minerals of California are gold, silver, copper, 
iron, tin, and quicksilver. 

4. Wheat, flour, pork, bdef, cotton, tobacco, and petro- 
leum are exported from the United States. 

5. The Goth, the Christian, Time, War, Flood, and Fire, 
Have dealt upon the seven-hilled city's pride. 

6. CHRISTMAS MARKETS. 

Heaped upon the floor, to form a kind of throne, 
were turkeys, ge'ese, game, brawn, great joints of me'at, 
sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum- 
puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot ch&stnuts, cherry- 
cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pdars, immense 
twelfth-cakes, and great bowls of punch. dickens. 



94 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

7. BOARDING-SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 

And thus their studies they pursued : — On Sunday, 

Be'ef, collects, batter, tdxts from Dr. Price; 
Mutton, Fre'nch, pancakes, grammar — of a Monday ; 

Tuesday — hard dumplings, globes, Chapone's Advice. 

Wednesday — fancy-work, rice-milk (no spice) ; 
Thursday — pork, dancing, currant-bolsters, reading ; 

Friday, bdef, Mr. Butler, and plain rice ; 
Saturday — scraps, short lessons and short feeding, 
Stocks, back-boards, hash, steel-collars, and good breeding. 

Hood. 

8. from dickens's "Christmas carol." 

It was a game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's 
nephew had to think of something, and the rest must 
find out what ; he only answering to their questions yes 
or no, as the case was. The fire of questioning to 
which he was exposed elicited from him that lie was 
thinking of an animal, a live animal, rather a disagree- 
able animal, a savage animal, an animal that growled and 
grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and lived in 
Ldndon, and walked about the streets, and was n't made 
a shdtv of, and was n't led by anybody, and did n't live 
in a menagerie, and was never killed in a market, and 
was not a horse, or an ass, or a edw, or a ball, or a 
tiger, or a elog, or a pig, or a eeit, or a bear. 

9. from Dickens's "christmas carol." 
Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room, all as they shotild 

be. Nobody under the table ; nobody under the sofa ; 
a small fire in the grate ; spoon and basin ready ; and 
the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his 
head) upon the hob. Nobody under the he'd ; nobody 
in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown, which was 
hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall. 
Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes, two 
fish-baskets, washing-stand on three legs, and a poker. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 95 

IT. THE FALLING INFLECTION. 

1. The falling inflection is the slide of the complete 
statement. 

2. It is the characteristic inflection of assertion, of 
confidence, of command, of emotion, and of passion. 

3. It denotes what is important, interesting, or decisive. 
It is the prevailing inflection of impressive oratory. 

EULES FOP, THE FALLING INFLECTION. 

Fade I. The close of a declarative, imperative, or ex- 
clamatory sentence is generally marked by the falling 
inflection. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. The liberty of the press is the highest safeguard 
to all free government. It is like a great, exulting, and 
abounding river. 

2. Maud Muller, on a summer's day, 
Eaked the meadow sweet with hay. 

3. Ye crags and pdaks, I 'm with you once again ! 
I hold to you the hands you first beheld, 
To show they still are free. Methinks I hear 
A spirit in your echoes answer me, 
And bid your tenant welcome to his home 
Again ! sacred forms, how proud ye look ! 
How high you lift your heads into the sky ! 
How huge you are ! how mighty and how free ! 

Bide II. The answer to a direct question generally 
takes the falling inflection. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Are vou ^oinGj to school? Yes, I elm. 

2. Shall traitors lay that greatness low ? 
No ! land of hope and blessing, no. 



96 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

EXCEPTIONS. 

Answers given in a careless or an indifferent manner 
sometimes take the rising inflection, as, 

1. What do you want ? Nothing. 

2. Which will you have ? I do n't care. 

3. What did you say ? Not much. 

4. May I stay here ? Yds, you may if you like. 

5. Out spoke the ancient fisherman : " what was that, 
my daughter ? " 

" 'T was nothing but a pebble, sir, I threw upon the 
water." 

"And what is that, pray tell me, love, that paddles 
off so fast ? " 

"It's nothing but a porpoise, sir, that's been a swim- 
ming past." 

Rule III Impassioned exclamation or very emphatic 
assertion is characterized by the falling inflection — usually 
the fifth or eighth. 

EXAMPLES. 

[Falling Fifth.] 

1. Rise, fellow-men, our country yet remains. 

2. Clearness, force, and earnestness are the qualities 
which produce conviction. 

3. Eloquence is action, noble, sublime, godlike action. 

4. Strike — till the last armed foe exph res ; 
Strike — for your altars and your fires; 

Strike — for the green graves of your sires, 
God — and your native land ! 

[Falling Eighth. — Emotional.'] 

5. horrible ! h<>i 
G. my prophetic sbul ! my iinch 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 97 

7. We heard the piercing shriek of murder ! murder ! 
murder ! 

8. I have done my duty: — I stand acquitted to my 
conscience and my country : — I have opposed this measure 
throughout ; and I now protest against it as harsh, op- 
pressive, uncalled for, unjust, — as establishing an infamous 
'precedent by retaliating crime against crime, — as tyran- 
nous — cruelly and vindictively tyrannous. o'Counell. 

9. The mustering place is Lanrick mead, 
Speed forth the signed, Norman, speed ; 
Her summons dread brooks no delay, 
Stretch to the race — away, away I 

10. Thy threats, thy mercy, I defy, 
Let recreant yield who fears to die. 

11. "Can naught but blood our feud atone? 
Are there no means?" Nb, stranger, none. 

Rule IV . Indirect questions and very emphatic direct 
questions generally take the falling inflection. 

Interrogative sentences beginning with who, which, 
when, where, why, and how, generally take the falling 
inflection. A direct question if repeated a second or 
third time, frequently takes the falling inflection for 
emphasis. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. What constitutes a State ? 

2. What is it that gentlemen wish? 

3. When was he graduated ? 

4. Why do you not study your lesson ? 

5. "Speak louder; I did not hear your question." 
" Are you going to Boston ? " 

6. why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 



98 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

7. "Do you hear the rain, Mr. Caudle ? I say, do you 
hear the rain ? Do you hear it against the vAnd&ws \ 
Do you hear it, I say? Oh! you do hear it!" 

Rule V. Completeness of thought or expression, whether 
in the clauses of a complex sentence, or in the propositions 
of a compound sentence, generally requires the falling in- 
flection. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. DEAD HEROES. 

They fell | devdted, but undying ; 
The very gale | their names seemed sighing ; 
The welters | murmured of their name; 
The woods | were peopled with their fame; 
The silent pillar, lone and gray, 
Claimed kindred | with their sacred clay: 
Their spirits | wrapped the- dusky mountain, 
Their memory | sparkled o'er the fountain; 
The meanest rill, the mightiest river, 
Boiled mingling | with their fame forever. 

Byron. 
2. FROM GOLDSMITH'S ''DESERTED VILLAGE." 

Imagination fondly stoops to trace 

The parlor splendor of that festive place : 

The whitewashed wall, the nicely sanded floor, 

The varnished clock that clicked behind the door; 

The chest, contrived a double debt to pay, 

A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day ; 

The pictures placed for ornament and use, 

The twelve good rides, the royal game of goose ; 

The hearth, except when winter chilled the day, 

With aspen boughs and Jlourrs and finml gay ; 

While broken teacups, wisely kept for show, 

Ranged o'er the chimney, glistened in a row. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 99 

3. bacon's philosophy. 

It has lengthened life ; it has mitigated pain ; it has 
extinguished diseases ; it lias increased the fertility of 
the soil ; it has given new securities to the mariner ; it 
has furnished new arms to the vjdrrior ; it has spanned 
great rivers and estuaries with bridges of form unknown 
to our fathers ; it has guided the thunderbolt innocuously 
from hdaven to earth ; it has lighted up the night with 
the splendor of the day ; it has extended the range of 
the human vision ; it has multiplied the power of the 
human muscles; it has accelerated motion ; it has anni- 
hilated distance ; it has facilitated Intercourse, correspond- 
ence, all friendly offices, all despatch of business; it has 
enabled men to descend to the depths of the sea, to 
soar into the air ; to penetrate securely into the noxious 
recesses of the earth, to traverse the land in cars which 
whirl along without horses, and the ocean in ships which 
run ten knots an hour against the wind. macaulay. 



4. FREEDOM. 

I love Freedom better than Slavery. I will speak her 
words ; I will listen to her music ; I will acknowledge her 
Impulses ; I will stand beneath her flag ; I will fight 
in her ranks ; and, when I do so, I shall find myself 
surrounded by the great, the wise, the good, the brave, 
the noble of every land. baker. 

5. CHOATE'S EULOGY OX WEBSTER. 

We seem to see his form and hear his deep, grave 
speech everywhere. By some felicity of his personal life ; 
by some wise, deep, or beautiful word spoken or written ; 
by some service of his own, or some commemoration of 
the services of others, it has come to pass that " our 
granite hills, our inland shas, prairies, and fresh, un- 
bounded, magnificent wilderness ; " our encircling ocean ; 
the resting-place of the Pilgrims ; our new-born sister of 



100 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

the Pacific; our popular assemblies; our fre*e schbols ; 
all our cherished doctrines of education, and of the 
influence of religion, and national policy and ldu\ and 
the Constitution, give us back his name. What American 
landscape will you Zoo& on ; what subject of American 
interest will you study ; what source of hope or of 
anxiety, as an American, will you acknowledge, that it 
does not recall him ? 

ifot/c VI In commencing a series of emphatic particu- 
lars, each particular except the last takes the slight falling 
inflection of the " third" and in a concluding scries, each 
particular except the last but one takes the falling inflec- 
tion. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. The air, the earth, the water teem with delighted 
existence. 

2. Valor, humanity, courtesy, justice, and honor, were 
the characteristics of chivalry. 

3. The ministers of religion, the priests of hteratuiw 
the historians of the past, the illustrators of the prlxent. 
capital, science, art, invention, discoveries, the works of 
genius — all these will attend us in our march, and we 
shall conquer. Baker. 

4. The characteristics of chivalry were valor, humanity, 
courtesy, justice, and honor. 

5. A TROPICAL SCENE. 

The mountain wooded to the peak, the lawns 
And winding glades high up like ways to heaven, 
The slender coco's drooping crown of plumes, 
The lightning flash of insect and of bird. 
The luster of the long convblvuluses 
That coiled around the stately stems, and ran 
Even to the limit of the land, the glows 
And glories of the broad belt of the icorld, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 101 

All these lie sdw ; but what lie fain had seen 

He could not see, the kindly human face, 

Nor ever hear a kindly voice, but heard 

The myriad shriek of wheeling ctem-fowl, 

The league-long roller thundering on the reef 

The moving whisper of huge trees that branched 

And blossomed in the zenith, or the sweep 

Of some precipitous rivulet to the wave, 

As down the shore he ranged, or all day long 

Sat often in the seaward-gazing gorge, 

A shipwrecked sailor, waiting for a sail; 

No sail from day to day, but every day 

The sunrise broken into scarlet shafts 

Among the palms and ferns and precipices ; 

The blaze upon the waters to the east ; 

The blaze upon his Island overhead ; 

The blaze upon the waters to the west ; 

Then the great stars that globed themselves in heaven, 

The hollower-bellowing ocean, and again 

The scarlet shafts of sunrise, — out no sail. 

Tennyson's Enoch Arden. 
ILLUSTRATION. 

The contrast in the rendering of a series with the 
rising inflection and the unemphatic tone of indiffer- 
ence, or with the falling inflection and the emphasis of 
feeling, is illustrated by the following: 

The one with yawning made reply : 
" What have we seen ? Not much have I ! 
Trdes, mdadows, mountains, groves, and streams, 
Blue sky, and clouds, and sunny gleams." 

The other, smiling, said the same ; 
But, with face transfigured and eye of flame : 
'• Trees, meadows, mountains, groves, and streams, 
Blue sky and clouds and sunny gleams ! " 






102 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Rule VII The cadence, or falling inflection at the 
end of a sentence, must not he made too abruptly. 

The closing descent in tone at the end of a sentence 
falls lower than the falling inflection at the end of the 
propositions that make up a compound sentence, and 
lower than the slide on emphatic words or clauses. 
The longer the sentence, the more marked is the cadence. 
The common errors in cadence are : (1) Dropping the 
tone suddenly on the last word of the sentence. (2) 
Falling too soon in the sentence. (3) A gradual dimin- 
ishing in force towards the end of a sentence, so that 
the last few words are feebly uttered. (4) A monoto- 
nous' sameness of inflection. 

The difference between the partial falling inflection in 
the body of a sentence and the cadence at the close, 
must be illustrated by the living voice of the teacher. 
Take the following sentence from Addison for illus- 
tration : 

" Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful 
of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest 
variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the great- 
est distance, and continues the longest in action without 
being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments" 

Here the slide on "ideas " and " distance " is the partial 
falling, say the falling third, while the cadence on " enjoy- 
ment" runs to the falling fifth. It will be noticed, also. 
that the voice slides upward on " action," to prepare for 
the cadence at the close of the sentence. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. I have done my ditty ; T stand acquitted to my 
conscience and my country; I have opposed this meas- 
ure throughout; and I now protest against it, as hardi, 
oppressive, unedited for, unjilst ; as establishing an infa- 
mous precedent, by retaliating crime against crime; as 
tyrannous — cruelly and vindictively tyrannous. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. ' 103 

2. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay : 
Princes antl lords may nourish, or may fade — 
A breath can make them, as a breath has made ; 
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
When once destroyed, can never be supplied. 

3. God of the earth's extended plains ! 

The dark green fields contented lie : 
The mountains rise like holy towers, 

Where man might commune with the sky; 
The tall cliff challenges the storm 

That lowers upon the vale below, 
Where shaded fountains send their streams, 

With joyous music in their flow. 

Rules for Contrasted Inflections. 

Rule I. When negation is opposed to affirmation, nega- 
tion has the rising, and affirmation the falling inflection. 
Contrasted icords are emphatic. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. He did not call you, but me. 

2. He called you, not me. 

3. He called neither you nor me. 

4. Man never is, but always to be blest. 

5. JOHN HOWARD. * 

He visited all Europe — not to survey the sumptuous- 
ness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples; not to 
make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient 
grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosities of modern 
art, nor to collect medals, or collate manuscripts; but 
to dive into the depths of dungeons, to plunge into the 
infection of hospitals, to survey the mansions of sorroio 
and pain; to take the gauge and dimensions of imsery, 
depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to 



104 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and com- 
pare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries. 
His plan is original ; it is as full of genius as of humanity. 
It was a voyage of discovert/ — a circumnavigation of 
charity, birke. 

Rule II. When the conjunction OR connects contrasted 
words or phrases, it is preceded "by the rising, and fol- 
lowed by the falling inflection. Contrasted words an 
emphatic. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Did he call Jane or Mary? 

2. Is this book yours or mine ? 

3. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give 
my hand and my heart to this vote. 

4. Do we mean to carry on or to give up the war ? 

Acquire an additional example from each pupil. 

Rule III. Contrast or antithesis is denoted by opposite 
inflections on the contrasted words of a sentence, and the 
contrasted words arc emphatic. 

Pupils should be cautioned against the common fault 
of substituting, in examples of contrast, the circumflex 
inflections for the direct rising and falling inflections. 
The following example is often incorrectly read thus : 

1. In the owe we most admire the man; in the other, 
the work. 

It should be read as follows: 

2. In the one we most admire the man; in the other, 

the wbrk. g 

3. Incorrect: As is the beginning, so is the end, 

4. Correct: As is the beginning, so is the end. 

f). Incorrect: What we gain in pSwer is lost in time, 
6. Correct: What we gam in pdwer is lost in rune. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 105 

The circumflex inflections are properly applied in 
cases of very emphatic contrast, or in the expression of 
irony, sarcasm, wit, and humor. 

Selection 3, at the end of this chapter, affords good 
illustrations of contrasted circumflex, while selections 1, 
2, and 5 are examples of the use of the direct rising 
and falling inflections. 

"A fault of local usage, prevailing throughout New 
England," says Prof. Russell, "is that of giving all em- 
phasis with the tone of the circumflex. It is a tone 
incompatible with simplicity and dignity of expression, 
and belongs properly to irony or ridicule, to the peculiar 
significance of words and phrases embodying logical or 
grammatical niceties of distinction, or to the studied and 
peculiar emphasis which belongs to the utterance of a 
word intended to convey a pun. This fault would be 
avoided by giving emphasis with the direct inflection, 
instead of the circumflex." 

EXAMPLES OF CONTRAST. 

1. I said good, not lad ; virtuous, not vicious ; educated, 
not illiterate. 

2. He spoke for education, not against it. 

3. After the shower, the tranquil sun ; 
Silver stars when the day is done. 
After the snow, the emerald leaves; 
After the harvest, golden sheaves; 
After the clouds, the violet sky ; 
Quiet woods when the winds go by. 
After the tempest, the lull of waves ; 
After the tattle, peaceful graves. 
After the knell, the wedding-hells ; 
Joyful greetings from sad farewells. 
After the bud, the radiant rose; 
After our iceejnny, sweet repbse. 



10G SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

After the burden, the blissful meed; 
After the ftirrow, the waking s&cd. 

After the flight, the downy nest ; 
Beyond the shadowy river — rest. 

4. Thus the Puritan was made up of two different 
men : the one, all self-abasement, penitence, gratitude, pds- 
sion ; the other, proud, calm, inflexible, sagacious. He 
prostrated himself in the dust before his Maker; but 
he set his foot on the neck of his king. 

5. ROME AND CARTHAGE. 

The catastrophe of this stupendous drama is at hand. 
What actors are met ! Two races — that of merchants 
and mariners, that of laborers and soldiers; twd nations 
— the one dominant by gold, the other by steel; two 
republics — the one theocratic, the other aristocratic. Home 
and Carthage ! Rome with her army, Carthage with her 
fleet ; Carthage, old, rich, and crafty — Rome, young, %)bor, 
and robust ; the past, and the future; the spirit of dis- 
cdvery, and the spirit of conquest ; the genius of cdmmcrcc, 
the demon of war ; the East and the South on 6ne side, 
the West and the North on the other; in short, two 
wbrlds — the civilization of Africa, and the civilization of 
Europe. viciob in-co. 

G. I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The 
latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of the 
mind. Mirth is short and transient, eJiceifulncss f\xed 
and permanent. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that 

breaks through a "loom of clouds, and flitters for a 
moment ; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the 
mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serbiity. 

7. THE OXK-Iioss SHAY. 

For the wheels were just as strong as the thills, 
And the floor was just as strong as the sills, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 107 

And the panels just as strong as the floor, 

And the whipple-tree neither less nor more, 

And the back crossbar as strong as the fore, 

And spring, and axle, and hub encore, 

And yet, as a whole, it is past a doubt 

In another hour it will be worn out ! holmes. 

8. DUST TO DUST. 

"Earth to earth, and dust to dust!" 

Here the evil and the just, 

Here the youthful and the old, 

Here the fearful and the bold, 

Here the matron and the maid, 

In one silent bed are laid ; 

Here the vassal and the king 

Side by side lie withering ; 

Here the sword and scepter rust — 

" Earth to earth, and dust to dust ! " croly. 

9. HUDIBRAS. 

He was in logic a great critic, 

Profoundly skilled in analytic, 

He could distinguish and divide 

A hair 'twixt so uth and sduth-west side; 

On either which he would dispute, 

Confute, change hands and still confute. 

He'd undertake to prove by force 

Of argument a man's no hSrsc : 

He 'd prove a buzzard is no fowl, 

And that a lord may be an dial; 

A calf an alderman, a goose a justice, 

And rooks committee-men and trustees. 

He 'd run in debt by disputation. 

And pay with ratiocination. botleb. 

10. TACT AND TALENT. 

Take them into the church. Talent has always some- 
thing worth Maring, tact is sure of abundance of hearers ; 






108 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

talent may obtain a living, tact will mdke one; talent 
gets a good name, tact a great one ; talent convinces, tact 
converts; talent is an honor to the profession, tact gdins 
honor from the profession. Take them to court. Talent 
feels its weight, tact finds its wdy ; talent commands, 
tact is obeyed; talent is honored with approbation, and 
tact is blessed by preferment. 



Ride IV. Direct questions generally require the rising 
inflection, and their answers, the falling inflection. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Have you studied your lesson ? Yes. 

2. Are you going to New York ? No. 

3. OUR COUNTRY. 

Oh, country, marvel of the e'arth ! 

Oh, realm to sudden greatness grown ! 
The age that gloried in thy birth, 

Shall it behold thee overthrown ? 
Shall traitors lay that greatness low ? 
M! Land of Hope and Blessing, No! 

Bryant. 
4. THE INQUIRY. 

Tell me, my secret soul, 

Oh, tell me, Hope and Faith, 
Is there no resting-place 

From sorrow, sin, and ddath ? 
Is there no happy spot 

Where mortals may be blessed, 
'Where grief may find a balm, 

And weariness a rdst ? 
Faith, Hope, and Love — best boons to mortals given — 
Waved their bright wings, and whispered " Yes, in heaven ! '" 

M U KAY. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 109 

5. FROM "HAMLET." 

Hamlet. Hold you the watch to-night? 

Mar. and Ber. We do, my lord. 

Hamlet. Armed, say you? 

Mar. and Bcr. Armed, my lord. 

Hamlet. From top to £oe ? 

Mar. and ^er. My lord, from head to /do£. 

Hamlet Then you saw not his face ? 

Hor. Oh, yds, my lord ; he wore his heaver up. 

Hamlet. What, looked he froicningly ? 

Hor. A countenance more in sorvow than in anger. 

Hamlet. Pale or red ? 

Hor. Nay, very pale. 

Hamlet. And fixed his eyes upon you ? 

Hor. Most constantly. 

Hamlet. I would / had been the're. 

Hor. It would have much amazed yOU. Shakespeare. 



III. INFLECTIONS OF THE PAEENTHESIS. 

Rule I. The words included in a parenthesis, or be- 
tween two clashes used as a. parenthesis, and any phrase 
corresponding in effect to a parenthesis, are read with the 
same inflection as the clause immediately preceding them. 

"A lower and less forcible tone, and a more rapid 
utterance, than in the other parts of a sentence, together 
with a degree of monotony, are required in the reading 
of a parenthesis. The form of parenthesis implies some- 
thing thrown in as an interruption of the main thought 
in a sentence. Hence its suppressed and hurried toue ; 
the voice seeming to hasten over it slightly, as if impa- 
tient to resume the principal object. The same remark 
applies, with more or less force, to all intervening 
phrases, whether in the exact form of parenthesis or 

not. Russell. 



110 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Uprightness is a habit, and, like all other habits, 
gains strength by time and exercise. If then we Exer- 
cise upright principles (and we cannot have them, unless 
we exercise the*m), they must be perpetually on the 
increase. 

2. " And this," said lid — putting the remains of a 
crust into his wallet — "and this should have been thy 
portion," said he, "hadst thou been alive to have shared 
it with me." 

3. To my mind — though I am native here, 
And to the manner born — it is a custom 
More honored in the breach than the observance. 

tJIIAKESPEABE. 

Summary of Inflection. 

1. The stronger the emjihasis, the longer the slides. 

2. In unimpassioncd reading, the emphasis is slight 
and the slides are short : in bold and dignified composi- 
tion, the emphasis is stronger and the slides are longer: 
and in highly impassioned or dramatic reading, the em- 
phasis is strongest and the slides are longest 

3. The general principle that underlies all the rules of 
inflection is as folloios: The rising inflection in general 
denotes incompleteness of statement, comparatively unim- 
portant statement, inter rogation, or negation ; the falling 
inflection denotes completed or emphatic statement. 

General Inflection Drill. 

1. Sing the scale, upward and downward. 

2. Substitute in place of the note names the long 
vocals, thus : a, e, I, 5, u, a, e, 5. 

3. Sound the third, fifth, and eighth notes of the 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. Ill 

scale ; then substitute for the note names the following : 
e, a, 60. 

4. Give the long vowel sounds, a, e, I, o, ii, (1) witli 
the rising " second ; " (2) with the rising " third ; " (3) 
with the rising "fifth;" (4) with the rising "eighth." 

5. Give the long vowel sounds, a, e, I, o, u, with the 
falling " second," " third," " fifth," and " eighth." 

6. Give the long vowel sounds, a, e, I, o, u, with the 
rising wave of the '-'third;" of the "fifth;" of the 

octave ; " the falling wave with the same degrees. 



IV. THE CIRCUMFLEX INFLECTION. 

The circumflex, or wave, is a combination of the rising 
and falling inflections on the same word or sound. 

The rising circumflex ends with the rising inflection, 
and is denoted thus ( v ) ; the falling circumflex ends 
with the downward slide, and is marked thus ( A ). 

The circumflex is more emphatic than the direct rising 
and falling inflections. The circumflex may be divided 
into the distinctive and the emotional. 



I. The Distinctive Circumflex of the Third. 

The distinctive, or unimpassioned, circumflex occurs 
when the voice rises or falls through the interval of the 
third. It is the characteristic inflection of good-natured 
raillery, of humor, and of wit. It is used in express- 
ing a pun, or a play upon words. It expresses a double 
meaning, or a double relation. It carries the mind back 
to something that has been said, or forward to some- 
thing to he said. This form of circumflex is a delicate 
wave of the voice, and is very expressive ; but great care 
should be taken not to overdo it. Carried to excess, 
it becomes ridiculous. 



112 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

II. Inflection Drill. 

1. Sound the long vocals, a, e, I, 5, ii, with the slight 
rising circumflex of the third ; with the slight falling 
circumflex. 

2. Count from one to twenty, with the slight risius 

circumflex; with the falling wave of the third. 

3. It is n't the secret I care about, Mr. Caudle. It 's 
the slight. 

4. Do you hear the rain, Mr. Caudle ? 

5. When lawyers take what they would give, 
And doctors give what they would tdke. 

6. I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, 
Who, you all know, are honorable men. 

7. Men, indeed/ call themselves lords of creation ! 
Pretty lords, when they can't even take care of an um- 
brella ! 

8. Let any man resolve to do right now, leaving then 
to do as it can ; and if he were to live to the age of 
Ifethiisclah, he would never do wrong. But the com- 
mon error is to resolve to act right after b real fast, or 
after dinner, or to-morrow morning, or ne>i time. But 
now, just now, this once, we must go on the same as 
ever. 

III. Emotional Circumflex. 

The emotional circumflex occurs when the voice rises 
or falls through an interval of the fifth or the eighth. 

It is the wave of irony, sarcasm, scorn, contempt, 
hatred, revenge, astonishment, or amazement. It is the 
inflection of very strong emphasis. 

The rising circumflex occurs where, otherwise, the 
direct rising inflection would be used; and the falling 
wave where, otherwise, the falling slide would be applied. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 113 

IV*. Inflection Drill. 

1. Sound the long vocals, a, e, I, 5, u, with the rising 
circumflex of the fifth; with the falling circumflex. 

2. Eepeat, five times, with surprise, the words, "ah! 
indeed /" with the rising circumflex of the fifth. 

3. Gone to be married ! gone to swear a peace ! 

4. Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, 
affections, passions ? 

5. Eepeat, with irony and the falling wave of the 
fifth, the expressioD, "I told you so\" 

6. Sound the long vocals, a, e, I, 5, u, witli the rising 
wave of the eighth ; the fallino- wave of the eighth. 

7. Repeat, five times, with the greatest possible aston- 
ishment, the following : ah ! indeed ! is it true ! 

8. noble judge! excellent young man! 

9. No ! by St. Bride of Bothwell, nd ! 

10. Soars thy presumption then so high, 
Because a wretched him ye slew, 
Homasre to name to Roderick Dim? 



V. Examples of the Distinctive Circumflex. 

The distinctive circumflex is the delicate wave of the 
voice, generally of the rising or falling third, indicative 
of mirth, fun, wit, humor, and good-natured raillery. 
In the following examples, be careful not to overdo the 
inflection or the emphasis. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. THE DEBTOR. 

A cUbtor is a man of mark. Many eyes are fixed upon 
him; many have interest in his well-being; his move- 
ments are of concern; he can not disappear unheeded; 



114 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

his name is in many mouths; his name is upon many 
hooks'; he is a man of note — of promissory note; he fills 
the speculation of many minds ; men conjecture about 
him, wonder about him — wonder and conjecture whether 
he will pdy. He is a man of consequence, for many are 
running after him. His door is thronged with duns. 
He is inquired after every hour of the day. Judges hear 
of him and know him. Every meal he swallows, every 
coat he puts upon his back, every dollar he borrows, 
appears before the country in some formed document. 
Compare las notoriety with the obscure lot of the cred- 
itor — of the man who has nothing but claims on the 
world; a landlord, or yVfotrf-holder, or some such disa- 
greeable, hard character. 

2. falstaff's instinct. 
Why, I knew ye as well as he that mddc ye. Why, 
hear me, my masters: was it for me to kill the luir- 
apparent ? Should I turn upon the true prince ? Why, 
thou knowest I am as valiant as Hercules; but beware 
instinct; the lion will not touch the true prince; instinct 
is a great matter ; I was a coward on instinct. I shall 
think the better of myself and thee during my life ; / 
for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince, 

3. falstaff's honor. 
How then? Can honor set a leg? No. Or an 
arm ? No. Or take away the grief of a wound ? N6. 
Honor hath no skill in surgery, tlien ? N6\ "What fa 
honor? A word. What is that word? Air. A trim 
reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday. 
Doth he flel it ? No. Doth he hear it ? No. Is it 
^sensible, then ? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live 
with the living ? No. Why ? Detraction will not suffer 
it; therefore I'll none of it. — Honoris a mere 'scutcheon 
— and so ends my catechism. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 115 

4. PORTIA, IN THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to 
do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages 
princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his 
own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were 
good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow 
mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the 
blood ; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree ; such 
a hare is madness, the youth, to skip o'er the meshes 
of good counsel, the cripple. But this reasoning is not 
in the fashion to choose me a husband. me ! the 
word choose ! I may neither choose whom I ivould, nor 
refuse whom I dislike ; so is the will of a living daughter 
curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, 
Nerissa, that I can not choose one, nor refuse none ? 

5. ROMEO AND JULIET. 

Jul. Oh ! swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon 
That monthly changes in her circled orb; 
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. 

Rom. What shall I swear by ? 

Jul. Do not swear at all; 
Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, 
Which is the god of my idolatry, 
And 1 11 believe thee. 

6. NELLY GRAY. 

O, Nelly Gray ! 0, Nelly Gray ! 

Is this your love so warm ? 
The love that loves a scarlet coat 

Should be more uniform I hood. 

7. THE WITCH'S DAUGHTER. 

Her mother only killed a cow, 

Or witched a churn or dairy-pan ; 

But sM, forsooth, must charm a man. whittier. 



116 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

8. CONTENTMENT. 

Little I ask ; my wants are few : 

I only wish a hut of stone 
(A very plain brown stone will do), 

That I may call my own ; 
And close at hand is such a one, 
In yonder street that fronts the sun. 

I always thought cold victual nice. 
My choice would be vanilla-ice. 

I only ask that fortune send 

A little more than I can spend. holmes. 

9. AUNT TABITHA. 

Whatever I do, and whatever I say, 
Aunt Tabitha tells me that is n't the way. 
When she was a girl (forty summers ago), 
Aunt Tabitha tells me they never did so. 

HOLME& 

VI. Examples of Emotional Circumflex. 

The emotional circumflex runs into the fifth and 
eighth, and requires strong emphasis. This form of the 
circumflex is expressive of sarcasm, irony, astonishment, 
revenge, and hatred. 

examples. 
1. from dickens's "Christmas carol." 

"Let me hear another sound from ytiu" said Scrooge, 
" and you '11 keep your Christmas by losing your situa- 
tion. You're quite a powerful splaher t sir," he added, 
turning to his nephew. "I wonder you don't go into 
Parliament." 

2. KING JOHN. 

Thou wear a lions hide / Doff it for shdmr, 
And hang a cdlj-skhi on those recreant limbs. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 117 

3. CCmiOLANUS. 

Measureless liar ! thou hast made my heart 

Too great for what contains it. 

Boy ! Cut me to pieces, Volscians ; men and lads, 

Stain dll your edges on me. Boy ! — 

If you have writ your annals true, 't is there 

That, like an eagle in a dovecot, / 

Fluttered your Volscians in Corioli : 

Alone I did it. Boy! 

4. SHYLOCK. 

If it will feed nothing Use, it will feed my revenge. 
He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a mill- 
ion; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned 
my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, 
heated my enemies. And what 's his reason ? I am a 
Jew ! Hath not a Jew eyes ? Hath not a Jew hands, 
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions ? Is he not 
fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, 
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, 
warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter, as 
a Christian is ? If you stab us, do we not bUecl I If 
you tickle us, do we not laugh ? If you poison us, do 
we not die ? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge ? 

5. SCHOOL FOE. SCANDAL. 

Sir Peter. Very well, ma'am, very wUl ; so a husband 
is to have no influence, no authority ? 

Lady Teazle. Authority ! No, to be sure ; if you 
wanted authority over me, you should have adopted me, 
and not married me ; I 'm sure you were old enough. 

Sir Peter. Old enough ! ay, there it is. Will, wMl, 
Lady Teazle, though my life may be made unhappy by 
your ttmpcr, 1 11 not be ruined by your extravagance. 

Lady Teazle. My extravagance ! Sir Peter, am L to 
blame because flowers are dear in cold weather ? You 



118 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

should find fault with the climate, and not with me. 
For my part, I 'm sure, I wish it was spring all the 
year round, and that roses grew under our feet. 

Sir Peter. Zounds ! Madam, you had no taste when 
you married me. 

Lady Teazle. That 's very true, indeed, Sir Pe'ter ; 
and after having married you, I should never pretend to 
taste again, I allow. 



Iago. My noble lord- 



Othello. What dost thou say, Iago ? 

Iago. Did Michael Cassio, when you wooed my lady, 
know of your love ? 

Othello. He did, from first to last. Why dost thou 
ask ? 

Iago. But for a satisfaction of my thought ; 
No further harm. 

Othello. Why of thy thought, Iago ? 

Iago. I did not think, he had been acquainted with her. 

Othello. yds ; and went between us very oft. 

Iago. Indeed 1 

Othello. Indeed ! ay, indeed : — Discern'st thou aught 
in that ? Is he not honest ? 

Iago. Honest, my lord ? 

Othello. Ay, honest. 

Iago. My lord, for aught 1 know. 

Othello. What dost thou think/ 

Iago. Think, my lord ? 

Othello. Think, my l&rd ? By heavens ! he echoes me, 
As if there were some monster in his thought 
Too hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean something. 

7. FROM TIIK "HONEYMOON." 

Julia. I will go home ! 

Duke. You arc at home already. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 119 

Julia. 1 11 not endure it S — But remember this — 
Duke or no duke, I '11 be a duchess, sir ! 

Duke. A duchess/ You shall be a queen — to all 
Who, by the courtesy, will call you so. 

Juliet. And I will have attendance ! 

Duke. So you shall, 
When you have learned to wait upon yourself. 

Julia. To wait upon myself! Must I bear this ? 

Duke. Excellent ! 
How well you sum the duties of a wife I 
Why, what a Messing I shall lidve in you ! 

Juliet. A blessing ? 

Duke. When they talk of yoit and me, 
Darby and Joan shall no more be remembered : — 
We shall be happy! 

Julia. Shall we ? 

Duke. Wondrous happy ! 
Oh, you will make an ddmirctble wife ! 

Juliet. I will make a vixen. 

Duke. What ? 

Julia. A very vixen. 

Duke. Oh, no ! We '11 have no vixens. 

Juliet. I '11 not bectr it ! 
I '11 to my fathers ! — ToBIN 

V. THE MONOTONE. 

The monotone is one uniform tone, which neither rises 
nor falls in pitch above or below the general level of 
the sentence. It is a continuous flow of sound, corre- 
sponding, in some degree, to the chanting tone in vocal 
music. It is generally associated with low pitch and slow 
movement. When the voice is under the influence of 
awe or horror, the monotone strikes upon the ear like 
the recurring pulsations of a cleep-toned bell. 



120 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

The monotone is the natural expression of voice when 
the feelings are under the influence of awe, adoration, 
reverence, sublimity, grandeur, or horror. 

" Grandeur of thought and sublimity of feeling," says 
Tower, "are always expressed by this movement. The 
effect produced by it is deep and impressive. When 
its use is known, and the rule for its application is 
clearly understood, the reading will be characterized by 
a solemnity of manner, a grandeur of refinement, and 
a beauty of execution, which all will acknowledge to be 
in exact accordance with the dictates of Nature, and 
strictly within the pale of her laws." 

The monotone, one of the most effective tones in 
elocution, must not be confounded with monotony, one 
of the worst faults in school reading. 

There is one form of monotone, prevailing in the 
poetry of sentiment, that is not combined with low pitch. 
This may be called poetic monotone, as contrasted witli 
the monotone on a low pitch, which may be termed 
grave, monotone. 

In poetic monotone, the key is not necessarily lower 
than the middle pitch, though there is always something 
of the suppressed force of pathos and sentiment. In 
examples of the poetic monotone, the slight or suspen- 
sive rising inflection takes the place of monotone. 

I. Inflection Drill on the Monotone. 

1. Repeat, five times, the long vowel sounds, a, e, I, 5, u. 

2. Count, in low pitch combined with monotone, from 
one to twenty, thus: one, two, three, etc. 

3. Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! 
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. 

4. An ancient time-piece says to all — 

Forever — never ! 
Never — forever ! 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 121 

II. Examples of Poetic Monotone. 

1. FROM FOE'S " EATEN." 

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from 

an unseen censer 
Swung by Seraphim, whose footfalls tinkled on the 

tufted floor. 
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing 
To the fowl, whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's 

core ; 
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease 

reclining 
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light 

gloated o'er, 
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light 

gloating o'er 

She shall press, ah, nevermore ! 

2. FROM "THE CLOSING SCENE." 

Long, but not loud, the droning wheel went on, 

Like the low murmur of a hive at noon; 
Long, but not loud, the memory of the gone 

Breathed through her lips a sad and tremulous tune. 
At last the thread was snapped : her head was bowed ; 

Life dropped the distaff through his hands serene, — 
And loving neighbors smoothed her careful shroud, 

While Death and Winter closed the autumn scene. 

Read. 
3. FASSING AWAY. 

While vet I looked, what a change there came ! 

Her eye was quenched, and her cheek was wan; 
Stooping and staffed was her withered frame, 
Yet just as busily swung she on. 
The garland beneath her had fallen to dust: 
The wheels above her were eaten with rust. 






122 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

The hands, that over the dial swept, 
Grew crooked and tarnished, but on they kept; 
And still there came that silver tone 
From the shriveled lips of the toothless crone — 
Let me never forget, to my dying day, 
The tone or the burden of that lay — 
'•' Passing away I Passing away ! " 

TlERPOXT. 

III. Low, or Grave, Monotone. 

The low, or grave, monotone is pitched on the lower 
notes of the voice. It is indicated by the macrons 
placed over the vowels : 

1. Alexander's feast. 
He chose a mournful muse, 
Soft pity to infuse: 
He sung Darius great and gdod, 

By too severe a late, 
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, 

Fallen from his high estate, 
And weltering in his blood. dbyden. 

2. the sea. 
Break, break, break, 

On thy cold gray stones, Sea ! 
And I would that my tongue could utter 

The thoughts that arise in me. 

well for the fisherman's boy. 

That he shouts with his sister at play ! 

well for the sailor lad, 

That he sings in his boat on the bay ! 

And the stately ships go on 
To their haven under the hill; 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 123 

But for the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still ! 

Break, break, break, 

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea ! 
But the tender grace of a clay that is dead 

Will never come back to me. Tennyson. 

3. DEATH. 

Leaves have their time to fall, 
And flowers to wither at the north-wind's breath, 

And stars to sefc — but all, 
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Death ! 

HEMAN'S. 

4. DRIFTING. 

From the strong Will, and the Endeavor 

That forever 
Wrestles with the tides of Fate ; 
From the wreck of Hopes far scattered, 

Tempest-sh attered, 
Floating waste and desolate ; — 

Ever drifting, drifting, drifting 

On the shifting 
Currents of the restless heart ; 
Till at length in books recorded, 

They, like hoarded 
Household words, no more depart. Longfellow. 

5. THE BATTLE. 

Heavy and solemn, 

A cloudy column, 
Through the green plain they marching came — 

Measureless spread, like a table dread, 
For the wild, grim dice of the iron game. 






124 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Looks are bent on the shaking ground, 
Hearts beat low with a knelling sound ; 
Swift by the breast that must bear the brunt, 
Gallops the major along the front. 

" Halt ! " 
And fettered they stand at the stark command, 
And the warriors, silent, halt. Schiller. 

G. THE PRISONER OF CHILLON. 

For all was blank, and bleak, and gray ; 

It was not night — it was not day; 

It was not even the dungeon light, 

So hateful to my heavy sight — 

But vacancy absorbing space, 

And fixedness — without a place ; 

There were no stars — no earth — no time — 

No check — no change — no good — no crime — 

But silence, and a stirless breath 

Which neither was of life nor death : 

A sea of stagnant idleness — 

Blind, boundless, mute, and motionless. byron. 

7. What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, 
Gaunt, and ominous bird of yore 
Meant in croaking " Nevermore." 

8. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
To. the last syllable of recorded time; 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle ! 
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, 
That 'struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 
And then is heard no more : it is a tale 
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
Signifying nothing. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 125 

9. THE OCEAN. 

Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 

Glasses itself in tempests ; In all time, 

Calm or convulsed, in breeze, or gale, or storm, 

Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 

Dark-heaving — boundless, endless, and sublime ; 

The Image of Eternity — the throne 

Of the Invisible ; even from out thy slime 

The monsters of the deep are made ; each zdne 

Obeys thee ; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless alone. 

Byron. 

10. SONG OF THE SHIRT. 

Work — work — work ! 
Till the brain begins to swim ; 

Work — work — work ! 
Till the eyes are heavy and dim ! 
Seam, and gusset, and band, 

Band, and gusset, and seam, 
Till over the buttons I fall asleep, 

And sew them on in a dream ! hood. 

11. THE GHOST IN HAMLET. 

Ghost. I am thy father's spirit ; 
Doomed for a certain term to walk the night ; 
And, for the day, confined to fast in fires, 
Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature, 
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid 
To tell the secrets of my prison-house, 
I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word 
Would harrow up thy soul ; freeze thy young blood ; 
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres ; 
Thy knotted and combined locks to part, 
And each particular hair to stand on end, 

Like quills lipOll the fretful porcupine. Shakespeare. 



126 school elocution. 

Recapitulation of Inflections. 

1. The rising inflection is the slide of appeal, of inquiry, 
of incompleteness, and of negation contrasted with oj/irma- 
tion. 

2. The falling inflection is the slide of assertion, of com- 
mand, and of complete statement. 

3. The circumflex is the wave of wit, humor, raillery, 
irony, sarcasm, satire, and revenge. 

4. The monotone is the tone expressive of grandeur, sub- 
limity, reverence, cave, amazement, and horror. 

Inflection Drill Review. 

1. Repeat, three times, the long vowel sounds, a, e, 
T, 5, u. (1) With the rising second. (2) With the ris- 
ing third. (3) With the rising fifth. (4) With the rising 
octave. 

2. Repeat, three times, a, e, I, 5, u. (1) With the 
falling second. (2) With the falling third. (3) With 
the falling fifth. (4) With the falling eighth. 

3. Repeat, three times, with the same degrees of in- 
flection as above, e, a, a, o, o. 

4. Repeat, three times, a, e, I, 6, u. (1) With the 
rising circumflex of the third. (2) Fifth. (3) Octave. 
(4) Falling circumflex of the third, (o) Falling fifth. 
(C) Falling octave. 

5. The same degrees of the circumflex as above, on 
e, a, a, o, o. 

G. Repeat, three times, a, e, I, 5, u, with the low mon- 
otone. 

7. Repeat, three times, e, a, a, a. 5, o, with the low 

monotone. 






school elocution. 127 

Inflection Drill on Vocals. 
Bead, in concert, the words of the following Table : 

1. With the rising inflection. 

2. With the falling inflection. 

3. With the rising circumflex. 

4. With the falling circumflex. 

a, e. — ale, made, braid, gauge, veil, play, weight. 
a. — alms, chart, heart, laugh, haunt, aunt, path. 
a, 6. — all, awe, law, fall, haul, bawl, -erawl, ought. 
a. — add, that, brat, hand, land, plaid, bade. 
a. — air, bare, dare, prayer, there, hair, scarce. 
a. — ask, -eask, task, pass, grass, dance, glance, 
a, o. — what, spot, wad, waud, was, watch, wan. 
e. — eat, beat, beet, the§e, seize, freeze, leaveg. 
e. — end, let, threat, get, gem, bread, yet, said, 
e, I. — earth, heard, learn, earn, err, third, gird, 
e, a, — they, weigh, nay, neigh, sleigh, prey, pray. 
I. — ic,e, Isle, aisle, wine, height, while, rhyme. 
I. — ill, it, win, thin, been, gin, since, zinc. 
I, e. — mirth, girl, dirt, verse, terse, worse, world. 
i, e. — pique, clique, -creek, oblique, ravine, 
o. — old, tho§e, groan, force, pour, roar, more, 
o. — 5dd, on, blot, spot, got, god, rod, phlox. 
o, oo, u. — move, proof, lo§e, loose, roof, choose. 
6, a. — or, nor, war, for, lord, -cord, fought, -caught. 
6, u. — done, doth, dost, dust, blood, flood, -come. 
9, oo, u. — wolf, would, wood, could, should, good, 
u. — u§e, mute, mu§e, feud, lieu, view, new, tube. 
u, 6. — up, biit, hut, son, blood, gun, duck, some, 
u. — urge, purge, surge, curd, urn, burn, churn, 
u, oo, o. — rule, sehool, brute, route, wound, rude, 
u, oo, o. — put, pull, push, bull, wool, wolf, wood, 
oi, oy. — oil, toy, boil, -coil, roil, joy, boy, cloy. 
ou, ow. — out, noun, proud, now, how, gout, pout. 



128 school elocution. 

Examples of Emphasis, Pauses, and Inflection. 

1. JOHN BUNYAN. 

Bunyan | is almost the only writer | that ever gave to 
the abstract | the interest of the concrete. In the works 
of many celebrated authors | men are mere personifica- 
tions. We have not an Othello, but jealousy ; not an 
Icigo, but perfidy ; not a Brutus, but patriotism. The 
mind of Bunyan, on the contrary, was so imaginative | 
that personifications, when lie dealt with them, became 
mhi. A dialogue between two qualities, in his deloni. 
has more dramatic effect | than a dialogue between two 
human beings | in most flays. 

The style of Bunyan | is delightful to every reader, 
and invaluable | as a study | to every person | who wishes 
to obtain a wide command over the English language. 
The vocabulary | is the vocabulary of the common people. 
There is not an expression, if w T e except a few technical 
terms of theology, which would puzzle the rudest peasant. 
We have observed several pages j which do not contain 
a single ivbrd | of more than two syllables. Yet no writer 
| has said more exactly | what he meant to say. Eor 
magnificence, for pathos, for vehement exhortation, for 
subtile disquisition, for every purpose of the poet, the 
orator, and the divine, this homely dialect, the dialect of 
plain worhingmen, was perfectly sufficient. There is no 
book in our literature | on which we would so readily 
stake the fame | of the old unpolluted English language ; 
no booh | which shows so well | how rich that language 
Is, in its own proper wdalth, and how little it has been 
improved | by all that it has borrowed. 

Cowper said, fifty or sixty years ago, that he dared 
not name John Bunyan in his verse, for fear of moving 
a sneer. We | live in better fames; and we are not afraid \ 
to say, that though there were many clever men in 
England | during the latter half of the seventeenth ce*n- 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 129 

tury, there were only two \ great \ creative \ minds. One 
of these produced the "Paradise Lost," the other | the 
"Pilgrim's Progress." macaulay. 

2. HYDEB, ALL 

[This extract must be read with strongly marked rising and falling, 
inflections.'] 

Whilst the authors of all these evils j were idly and 
stupidly gazing on this menacing meteor, which black- 
ened all the horizon, it suddenly hurst, and poured down 
the whole of its contents | upon the plains of the Car- 
natic. Then ensued a scene of woe, the like of which | 
no eye \ had seen, no heart \ conceived, and which no 
tongue | can adequately tell. The miserable inhabitants, 
flying from their flaming villages, in part | were slaugh- 
tered ; others, without regard to sex, to age, to rank, or 
sacredness of function — fathers | torn from children, Mis- 
hands | from ivives — enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry, 
and amidst the goading spears of drivers, and the tram- 
pling of pursuing horses, were swept into captivity, in 
an unknown and hostile land. Those who were able to 
evade this tempest, fled to the walled cities. But, escaping 
from fire, sword, and exile, they fell into the jaws of 
famine. 

For eighteen months, without intermission, this destruc- 
tion | raged | from the gates of Madras | to the gates of 
Tanjbre ; and so completely did these masters in their 
art, Hyder Ali, and his more ferocious son, absolve 
themselves | of their impious vow, that when the British 
armies | traversed, as they did, the Carnatic | for hun- 
dreds of miles in all directions, through the ivhblc line 
of their march they did not see one \ man, not one \ tubman, 
not 6ne \ child, not one \ four-footed heast | of any descrip- 
tion | whatever. One dead | uniform | silence | reigned | 
over the whole region. bubee. 



130 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

3. CONTRAST OF TACT AND TALENT. 

[This extract affords a good illustration of distinctive or unimpassioned 
circumflex.} 

Talent | is something, but tact | is every thing. Talent | 
is serious, sober, grave, and respectable: tact | is all thai, 
and more too. It is not a sixth sense, but it is the life 
of all the five. It is the open eye, the quick ear, the 
judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch; it is 
the interpreter of all riddles, the surmdunter of all diffi- 
culties, the remover of all obstacles. It is useful in all 
places, and at all times; it is useful in solitude, for it 
shows a man into the world ; it is useful in society, for 
it shows him his way | through the world. 

Talent | is power, tact \ is skill ; talent | is weight, tact | 
is momentum; talent | knows what to do, tact ] knows 
how to dd it ; talent | makes a man respectable, tact | will 
make him respected; talent is wealth, tact \ is ready 
money. For all the practiced purposes, tact | carries it 
against talent \ ten to one. 

Take them to the theater, and put them against each 
other on the stage, and talent | shall produce you a 
tragedy that shall scarcely live long enough to be con- 
demned, while tact | keeps the house in a roar, night 
after night, with its successful farces. There is no want 
of dramatic talent, there is no want of dramatic tact; 
but they are seldom together: so we have successful 
pieces | which are not respectable, and respectable pieces | 
which are not successful. 

Take them to the bar, and let them shake their learned 
curls at eacli other in legal rivalry; talent | sees its way 
clearly, but tact | is first at its journey's end. Talent \ 
lias many a complinicnt from the bdnch, but tact | touches 
fees. Talent makes the world wonder that it gets on 
no faster, tact | arouses astonishment | that it gets on so 
fast. And the secret is, that it has no weight to carry; 
it makes no false steeps ; it hits the right nail on the 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 131 

head; it loses no time; it takes all hints; and by keep- 
ing its eye on the weather-cock, is ready to take advantage 
of every wind that blows. 

Take them into the church : talent | has always some- 
thing worth hearing, tact \ is sure of abundance of hear- 
ers ; talent | may obtain a living, tact will make one ; 
talent | gets a good name, tact | a great one ; talent | con- 
vinces, tact | converts; talent | is an honor to the 'pro- 
fession, tact | gains honor | from the profession. 

Take them to court : talent | feels its loeight, tact | 
finds its way ; talent \ commands, tact | is obeyed ; tal- 
ent | is honored with approbation, and tact | is blessed 
by preferment. Place them in the senate: talent | has 
the ear of the house, but tact | wins its heart, and has 
its votes; talent | is fit for employment, but tact | is 
fitted for it. It has a knack | of slipping into place 
with a sweet silence and glibness of movement, as a bill- 
iard-hall insinuates itself into the pocket. 

It seems to know every thing, without learning any 
thing. It has served an extemporary cqoprenticeship ; it 
wants no drilling ; it never ranks in the dwkward squad ; 
it has no left hand, no deaf ear, no blind side. It puts 
on no look of wondrous wisdom, it has no air of profun- 
dity, but plays with the details of place | as dexterously 
as a well-taught hand | flourishes over the keys of the 
piano-forte. It has all the air of commonplace, and all 
the force and power of genius. London Atlas. 

4. THE PURITANS. 

[Marked for emphasis, inflection, and rhetorical pauses. Require the 
class to give the reasons for the marking. To be read with strongly 
marked emphasis and inflections.'] 

We would speak first of the Puritans, the most 
remarkable body of men, perhaps, which the world has 
ever produced. The ddious and ridiculous parts of their 
character | lie on the surface. He that runs \ may read 



132 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

them; nor have there been wanting | attentive and 
maljcious observers \ to point them out. For many years 
after the Bestoration, they were the theme | of unmeas- 
ured invective and derision. They were exposed | to the 
utmost licentiousness of the press | and of the stdge, at 
the time when the press and the stage | were most licen- 
tious. They were not men of letters; they wire | as a 
body | unpopular; they could not defend themselves; 
and the public | would not take them | under its protec- 
tion. They were therefore abandoned | without reserve \ 
to the tender me'reies | of the satirists and dramatists. 
The ostentatious simplicity of their dr4ss, their sour 
dspject, their nasal twang, their stiff posture, their long 
graces, their Hebrew names, the scriptural phrases which 
they introduced on every occasion, their contempt of 
human learning, their detestation of polite amusements, 
were indeed fair game for the laughers. But it is not 
from the laughers alone | that the phildsophy of history | 
is to be learned. And he who approaches this subject | 
should carefully guard against the influence | of that 
potent ridicule | which has already misled so many ex- 
cellent writers. 

Those who roused the people to resistance, who 
directed their measures through a long series of event- 
ful years, who formed, out of the most unpromising 
materials, the finest army | that Europe had ever sSen, 
who trampled down king, Church, and aristocracy, who, 
in the short intervals of domestic sedition and rebellion, 
made the name of England | terrible to every nation on 
the face of the earth, were no vulgar fanatics. Most of 
their absurdities | were mere ^eternal budges, like the 
signs of freemasonry, or the dresses of friars. We n - 
gret | that these badges | were not more attractive. We 
regret | that a body | to whose courage and talents | man- 
kind has owed inestimable obligdtiojts | had not the lofty 
elegance | which distinguished some of the adherents of 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 133 

Charles I., or the easy good breeding | for which the 
court of Charles IT. was celebrated. But, if we must 
make our choice, we shall, like Bassanio in the play, 
turn from the specious caskets, which contain only the 
death's head and the fool's head, and fix our choice | on 
the plain leaden chest | which conceals the treasure. 

The Puritans | were men | whose minds [ had derived 
a peculiar character \ from the daily contemplation | of 
superior beings | and eternal Interests. Not content | with 
acknowledging, in general terms, an overriding Provi- 
dence, they habitually ascribed every event | to the will 
of the Great Being, for whose poiocr | nothing was too 
vast, for whose inspection | nothing was too minute. To 
know him, to serve him, to enjoy him, was with them [ 
the great end of existence. They rejected with con- 
tempt | the ceremonious homage | which other sects | 
substituted for the pure ivorship of the sbid. Instead 
of catching occasional glimpses of the Deity | through 
an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full | on the 
intolerable brightness, and to commune with him | face 
to face, Hence originated | their contempt | for terres- 
trial distinctions. 

The difference between the greatest and the meanest 
of mankind | seemed to vanish, when compared with the 
boundless interval \ which separated the whole race | from 
him | on whom their dwn eyes | were constantly fixed. 
They recognized no title to superiority | but his favor ; 
and, confident of that favor, they ' despised all the accdm- 
plishments | and all the dignities of the ivbrld. If they 
were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and 
poets, they were deeply read | in the oracles of God, If 
their names were not found in the registers of heralds, 
they felt assured that they were recorded in the Book 
of Life. If their steps were not accompanied by a 
splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels \ 
had charge over them. Their palaces | were houses I 



134 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

not made with hands, their diadems | crowns of gl6ry \ 
which should never fade away. 

On the rich and the eloquent, on ndbles and priests, 
they looked down with contbnpt ; for they esteemed 
themselves | rich in a more precious treasure, and Eloquent 
in a more sublime language, nobles | by the right of an 
earlier creation, and priests | by the imposition | of a 
mightier hand. The very meanest of them | was a being \ 
to whose fate | a mysterious and terrible importance | be- 
longed — on whose slightest actions \ the spirits of light 
and darkness | looked with anxious interest — who had 
been destined, before heaven and earth were created, to 
enjoy a felicity | which should continue | when heaven 
and darth | should have passed away. Events | which 
short-sighted politicians | ascribed to earthly causes | had 
been ordained on his account. For his sake | empires 
had risen, and flourished, and decayed. For his sake 
the Almighty | had proclaimed his will | by the pen of 
the evangelist | and the harp of the prophet. He had 
been rescued by no common deliverer | from the grasp | 
of no common foe. He had been ransomed | by the 
sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood of no earthly 
sacrifice. It was for him | that the sun | had been dark- 
ened, that the rocks \ had been rent, and the dead had 
arisen, that all nature | had shuddered at the sufferings | 
of her expiring God ! 

Thus the Puritan | was made up | of twb different 
men, the one | all self-abasement, penitence, grdtii 
passion; the other | proud, calm, inflexible, sagacious. 
He prostrated himself in the dust before his Maker ; 
but lie set his foot \ on the neck of his ling. In hifl 
devotional retirement, lie prayed witli convulsion*, and 
groans, and thtrs. He was half-maddened by gldrious \ 
or thrible illusions. He heard the lyres of angels | or 
the tempting whispers of fiends. He caught a gleam of 
the Beatific Vision, or woke screaming | from dreams of 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 135 

everlasting fire. Like Vane, he thought himself intrusted 
with the scepter | of the millennial year. Like Fleet- 
wood, he cried in the bitterness of his soul | that God \ 
had hid his face from him. But when he took his 
seat in the council, or girt on his sword for wdr, these 
tempestuous workings of the soul | had left no perceptihle 
trace behind them. People who saw nothing of the 
godly | but their uncouth visages, and heard nothing 
from them | but their groans | and their whining hymns, 
might Ucugh at them. But those had little reason to 
laugh | who encountered them | in the hall of debate | 
or in the field of battle. 

These fandtics | brought to civil and military affairs | 
a coolness of judgment \ and an immutability of p4r- 
pose | which some writers have thought | inconsistent 
with their religious zeal, but which were, in fact, the 
necessary effects of it. The intensity of their feelings 
on one subject | made them trhnquil | on every other. 
One overpowering sentiment | had subjected to itself | pity 
and hatred, ambition and fear. Death | had lost its ter- 
rors, and pleasure | its chctrms. 

They had their smiles | and their tears, their raptures \ 
and their sorrows, but not | for the things of this 
world. Enthusiasm | had made them stoics, had cleared 
their minds from every vulgar passion and prejudice, 
and raised them above the influence of clanger and 
of corruption. It sometimes might lead them to pur- 
sue unwise ends, but never to choose unwise means. 

They went through the world | like Sir Artegale's iron 
man Talus with his flail, crushing and trampling down 
oppressors, mingling with human brings, but having 
neither part nor lot | in hum.an infirmities; insensible 
to fatigue, to pleasure, and to phin ; not to be pierced 
by any weapon, not to be withstood by any ohrricr. 

Macaulay. 



136 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

5. THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA. 

" But, Mr. Speaker, we have a right to tax America." 
Oh, inestimable right ! Oh, wonderful, transcendent right ! 
the assertion of which has cost this country thirteen 
provinces, six islands, one hundred thdusand lives, and 
seventy millions of money ! Oil, invaluable right ! for 
tlie sake of which we have sacrificed our rank ainon< r 

o 

nations, our importance abroad, and our happiness at 
home. 

Oh, ricjht, more dear to us than our existence, which 
has already cost us so much, and which seems likely to 
cost us our till ! Infatuated man ! miserable and undone 
country ! not to know that the claim of right, without 
the power of enforcing it, is litigatory and idle. We have 
a right to tax America, the noble lord tells us, therefore 
we ought to tax America. This is the profound logic 
which comprises the whole chain of his reasoning. 

Not inferior to this was the wisdom of him who 
resolved to shear the wolf. What — shear a wolf ! Have 
you considered the resistance, the difficulty, the danger, 
of the attempt ? 

No, says the madman, I have considered nothing but 
the right. Man has a right of dominion over the bea>t> 
of the forest ; and, therefore, I will shear the wdlf. 
How wonderful that a nation could be thus deluded! 
But the noble lord deals in cheats and delusions. They 
are the daily traffic of his invention ; and lie will con- 
tinue to play off his cheats on this house, so long ftS 
he thinks them necessary to his purpose, and so long 
as he has money enough at command to bribe gentle- 
men to pretend that they belikvc him. 

But a black and bitter day of reckoning will surely 
come; and whenever that day c6mes, I trust I shall be 
able, by a parliamentary impeachment) to bring upon the 
heads of the duthors of our calamities the punishment 
thev deserve. Bran. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 137 

6. FLOWERS. 

Spake fall well, in language quaint and olden, 

One who dwelleth by the castled Bhine, 
When he called the flowers, so blue and golden, 
Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine. 

Stars they hre, wherein we read our history, 

As astrologers and seers of eld ; 
Yet not so wrapped about with awful mystery, 

Like the burning stars which they beheld. 

Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, 
God hath written in those stars above ; 

But not less | in the bright flowerets under us | 
Stands the revelation of His love. 

Bright and glorious | is that revelation 
Writ all over this great world of ours ; 

Making evident our own creation | 

In these stars of earth — these golden flowers. 

And the Poet, faithful and far-seeing, 
Sees, alike in stars and flowers, a part | 

Of the self-same, universal being, 

Which is throbbing | in his brain and heart 

Gorgeous flowerets in the sunlight shining ; 

Blossoms | flaunting in the eye of day ; 
Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining; 

Buds | that open | only to decay ! 

Brilliant hopes, all woven in gorgeous tissues, 
Flaunting gayly in the golden light; 

Large desires, with most uncertain issues ; 
Tender lulshcs | blossoming at night ! 

These in flowers and men | are more than sdeming; 
Workings \ are they | of the self-same powers, 



138 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Which the Poet, in no idle dreaming, 
Seeth in himself, and in the flowers. 

Everywhere about us | are they glowing — 
Some like stars, to tell us Spring is born ; 

Others, their blue eyes | with tears o'erflowing, 
Stand like Ruth | amid the golden corn ; 

Not alone j in Spring's armorial bearing, 
And in Summer's | green emblazoned field, 

But in arms | of brave old Autumns wearing, 
In the center | of his brazen shield ; 

Not alone in meadows | and green alleys, 
On the mountain-top, and by the brink | 

Of sequestered pools | in woodland valleys, 
Where the slaves of nature | stoop to drink ; 

Not alone iu her vast dome of glory, 
Not on graves of bird and least alone, 

But on old cathedrals | high and hoary, 
On the tomb of heroes, carved in stone; 

In the cottage of the rudest peasant, 

In ancestral homes, whose crumbling towers, 

Speaking of the Past | unto the Present, 
Tell us of the ancient Games of Flowers; 

In all places, then, and in all seasons, 

Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings. 

Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons, 
How akin they are | to human things. 

And with child-like, credulous affection, 
We behold their tender buds expand ; 

Emblems of our own great resurrection, 
Emblems | of the bright | and letter land. 

Longfellow, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 139 

7. THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN. 

All the world's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely flayers: 
They have their exits and their entrances; 
And one man in his time plays many parts, 
His dc/s being seven ages. At first, the Infant, 
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. 
And then, the whining School-boy, with his satchel, 
And shining morning face, creeping like snail 
Unwillingly to school. And then, the Lover, 
Sighing like furnace, with a w'oful ballad 
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a Soldier, 
Full of strange baths, and bearded like the pard, 
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, 
Seeking the bubble reputdtion 

Even in the cannons mouth. And then, the Justice, 
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, 
Full of wise saivs and modern Instances; 
And so he plays Ms part. The sixth age shifts. 
Into the lean and slippered Pantaloon, 
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side; 
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide 
For his shrunk slulnk ; and his big manly voice, 
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes 
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, 
That ends this strange eventful history, 
Is second childishness and mere oblivion, 
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. 

Shakespeare. 



8. BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE. 

Not a drum, | was heard, not a funeral note, 
As his corse | to the rdmpart j we hurried; 

Not a soldier | discharged his farewell shbt 
O'er the grave | where our hero | we buried. 



140 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

We buried him darkly, at dead of night, 

The sods with our Uiyonets turning; 
By the struggling moonbeam's misty light, 

And the Utntcrn | dimly burning. 

No useless cdffin | inclosed his breast, 

Not in she'd | nor in shroud | we wound him; 

But he lay | like a warrior taking his rest \ 
With his martial cloak | around him. 

Few and short | were the prkyers we said, 

And we spoke not a word of sorrow, 
But we steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead, 

And we bitterly thought of the morrow. 

We thought, as we hollowed his narrow he'd, 

And smoothed down his lonely pillow, 
That the foe and the stranger | would tread o'er his he'ad, 

And we | far away on the billow ! 

Lightly they '11 talk of the spirit that 's gone, 
And o'er his cold ashes | npbrdid him, — 

But nothing he '11 reck, if they let him sleep on | 
In the grave | where a Briton | has laid him. 

But hcclf | of our heavy task | was done | 

When the clock | struck the hour for retiring; 

And we heard the distant and random gun \ 
That the foe | was sullenly firing. 

Slowly and sadly | we laid him down, 

From the field of his fame | fresh and gory ; 

We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone, 
But left him | alone with his glory. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 141 



CHAPTER IT. 
FORCE AND STRESS 



SECTION I. 
FORCE OF VOICE. 

1. Force of utterance relates to the degree of loudness 
or intensity of voice. 

2. The three main divisions of force are soft, moderate, 
and loud. These, for convenience, may be subdivided 
as follows : (1) Very soft (corresponding to pianissimo 
in music). (2) Soft (piano). (3) Moderate (mezzo-forte). 
(4) Loud (forte). (5) Very loud (fortissimo). 

3. The general rule of force is, to read with an 
intensity appropriate to the thoughts or emotion to 
be expressed, and with a power or strength of voice 
sufficient to fill the room, so that every person in it 
may hear distinctly every word that is uttered. 

4. Force of voice must be stronger in the school- 
room than in the parlor, and louder in the lecture-hall 
than in the school-room. If read to an assemblage of 
a thousand people, the most didactic and unimpassioned 
document must be read with considerable force. 

5. Pupils should be cautioned against attempting any 
degree of force beyond the compass of their voices, and 
also against the conventional school-tone of loudness, 
which consists in raising the voice to so high a pitch 
that it grates on the ear like the filing of a saw. 

6. "The command of all degrees of force of voice," 
says Prof. Eussell, " must evidently be essential to true 



142 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

and natural expression, whether in reading or speaking. 
Appropriate utterance ranges through all stages of vocal 
sound, from the whisper of fear and the murmur of 
repose, to the boldest swell of vehement declamation, 
and the shout of triumphant courage. But to give forth 
any one of these or the intermediate tones, with just 
and impressive effect, the organs must be disciplined by 
appropriate exercise and frequent practice. For every 
day's observation proves to us, that mere natural instinct 
and animal health, with all the aids of informing intel- 
lect, and inspiring emotion, and exciting circumstances, 
are not sufficient to produce the effects of eloquence, or 
even of adequate utterance. 

7. " The overwhelming power of undisciplined feeling 
may not only impede but actually prevent the right 
action of the instruments of speech ; and the novice who 
has fondly dreamed, in his closet, that nothing more is 
required for effective expression than a genuine feeling, 
finds, to his discomfiture, that it is perhaps the very 
intensity of his feeling that hinders his utterance ; and it 
is not till experience and practice have done their work, 
that he learns the primary lesson, that force of emotion 
needs a practiced force of will to balance and regulate 
it, and a disciplined control over the organs to give it 
appropriate utterance. 

8. " The want of due training for the exercise of 
public reading or speaking is evinced in the habitual 
undue loudness of some speakers, and the inadequate 
force of others — the former subjecting their hearers to 
unnecessary pain, and the latter to disappointment and 
uneasiness. 

9. " Force of utterance, however, has other claims on 
the attention of students of elocution, besides those which 
are involved in correct expression. It is, in its various 
gradations, the chief means of imparting strength to the 
vocal organs, and power to the voice itself. The due 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 143 

practice of exercises in force of utterance, does for the 
voice what athletic exercise does for the muscles of the 
body : it imparts the two great conditions of power — 
vigor and pliancy." 

CAUTION. 

10. In drill upon the following exercises, bear in mind 
the following direction from Prof. Monroe : " Seek to 
make the sounds always smooth and musical ; and never 
lose sight of the fact that what is wanted in every-day 
use of the voice, in the school-room or elsewhere, is a 
pleasant and natural intonation. The practice of loud 
and sustained tones is an excellent means of improving 
the voice ; but is to be the exception, not the rule, in 
ordinary reading. Still less should a shouting tone be 
used in conducting a recitation, or in the ordinary dis- 
cipline of a class. Yet the softest tone must be elastic 
and full of life, not dull and leaden." 



Concert Drill on Force. 

1. Eepeat, three times, the long vocals, a, e, I, o, u, 
(1) with soft force ; (2) with moderate force ; (3) with 
loud force. 

2. Count from one to twenty with very soft force ; 
with soft force; with moderate force; with loud force ; 
with very loud force. 

3. Eepeat, five times, the word " all," beginning with 
very soft force, and increasing the degree of force with 
each successive repetition of the word. 

4. Eepeat the following with increased force on each 
successive repetition : " loud, louder, loudest." 

5. Eepeat, three times, e, a, a, a, o, o, (1) with soft 
force ; (2) moderate force ; (3) loud force. 



144 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

I. Very Soft Force. 

Very soft force is appropriate to the expression of 
tenderness, sadness, or peaceful and tranquil feeling. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. DIRGE. 

Softly! She is lying 
With her lips apart. 

Softly! She is dying 
Of a broken heart. 

Whisper! She is going 
To her final rest. 

Whisper! Life is growing 
Dim within her breast. Eastman. 

2. LULLABY. 

Sweet and low, sweet and low, 

Wind of the western sea, 
Low, low, breathe and blow, 

Wind of the western sea ! Tehhtsos. 

3. ENOCH ARDEN. 

He therefore turning softly like a thief, 
Lest the harsh shingle should grate underfoot, 
And feeling all along the garden-wall, 
Lest he should swoon and tumble and be found, 
Crept to the gate, and opened it, and closed, 
As lightly as a sick man's chamber-door, 
Behind him, and came out upon the waste. 

And there he would have knelt, but that his knees 
Were feeble, so that falling prone he dug 
His fingers into the wet earth, and prayed 



Tennyson. 



II. Soft or Subdued Force. 
Soft force differs from very soft only in degree. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 145 

EXAMPLES. 

1. TIME. 

Touch us gently, Time ! 
- Let us glide adown thy stream 
Gently, as we sometimes glide 

Through a quiet dream. 
Humble voyagers are we, 

O'er life's dim, unsounded sea, 
Seeking only some calm clime ; 

. Touch US gently, Time! Barry Cornwall.. 

2. DEATH OF THE OLD TEAR. 

Full knee-deep lies the winter-snow, 

And the wintry winds are wearily sighing, 

Toll ye the church-bell, sad and slow, 

And tread softly and speak low, 
For the old year lies a-clying. 

Old year, you must not die. Tennyson. 

3. THE DEATH-BED. 

We watched her breathing through the night, 

Her breathing soft and low, 
As in her breast the wave of life 

Kept heaving to and fro. 
Our very hopes belied our fears, 

Our fears our hopes belied — 
We thought her dying when she slept, 

And sleeping when she died. hood. 

4. THE FAERIE QUEEN; 

Eftsoons they heard a most melodious sound 
Of all that might delight a dainty ear. 
Such as, at once, might not on living ground, 
Save in this paradise, be heard elsewhere : 
Right hard it was for wight which did it hear 

10 



146 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

To weet what manner music that might be, 
For all that pleasing is to living ear 
Was there consorted in one harmony ; 
Birds, voices, instruments, winds, waters, all agree. 



Spenser. 



5. THE ARSENAL. 

Down the dark future, through long generations, 
The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease ; 

And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations, 

I hear once more the voice of Christ say, "Peace!" 

Longfellow. 

6. THE LOST CHORD. 

Seated one day at the organ, 

I was weary and ill at ease, 
And my fingers wandered idly 

Over the noisy keys. 

I do not know what I was playing, 
Or what I was dreaming then ; 

But I struck one chord of music, 
Like the sound of a great Amen! 

It flooded the crimson twilight, 
Like the close of an angel's psalm, 

And it lay on my fevered spirit, 
With a touch of infinite calm. 

It quieted pain and sorrow, 

Like love overcoming strife ; 
It seemed the harmonious echo 

From our discordant life. 

It linked all perplexed meanings 

Into one perfect peace, 
And trembled away into silence, 

As if it were loath to cease. 

Adelaide Proctor. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 147 

III. Moderate Foece. 

Moderate force is the prevailing tone in the reading 
of unimpassioned narrative, descriptive, or didactic com- 
position, in a small room, or to a small number of 
persons. It is the degree of force used in conversation. 
The characteristic quality of moderate force is "pure 
tone," and the stress, "unimpassioned radical." 

EXAMPLES. 

1. There was a sound of revelry by night. 

2. What constitutes a state ? 

3. Scrooge never painted out old Marley's name. 

4. The history of England is emphatically the history 
of progress. 

5. The eyes of men converse as much as their tongues. 

6. Spake full well in language quaint and olden, 

One who dwelleth by the castled Ehine, 
When he called the flowers, so blue and golden, 
Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine. 

7. The way was long, the wind was cold, 
The minstrel was infirm and old. 

8. I met a little cottage ^irl, 

She was eight years old, she said ; 
Her hair was thick with many a curl, 
That clustered round her head. 

9. Blessings on thee, little man, 
Barefoot boy with cheeks of tan, 
With thy turned-up pantaloon, 
And thy merry whistled tune. 

10. I wrote some lines once on a time 
In wondrous merry mood, 
And thought, as usual, men would say 
They were exceeding good. 






148 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

They were so queer, so veiy queer, 

I laughed as I would die; 
Albeit, in the general way, 

A sober man am I. 

11. Listen, my children, and you shall hear 
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, 

On the eighteenth of April, in seventy-five; — 
Hardly a man is now alive 
Who remembers that famous day and year. 

12. Around I see the powers that be ; 

I stand by Empire's primal springs ; 
And princes meet in every street, 

And hear the tread of uncrowned kings ! 

13. Mrs. Siddons once had a pupil who was practicing 
for the stage. The lesson was upon the " part " of a 
young girl whose lover had deserted her. The rendering- 
did not please that Queen of Tragedy, and she said : 
"Think how you would feel under the circumstances. 
What would you do if your lover were to run off and 
leave you ? " "I would look out for another one," said 
that philosophic young lady ; and Mrs. Siddons, with a 
gesture of intense disgust, cried out, "Leave me!" and 
would never give her another lesson. 

14. HEADING AS AN ACCOMPLISHMENT. 

AVe had rather have a child .return to us from school 
a first-rate reader, than a first-rate performer on the 
piano-forte. We should feel that we had a far better 
pledge for the intelligence and talent of our child. The 
accomplishment, in its perfection, would give more 
pleasure. The voice of song is not sweeter than the 
voice of eloquence. And there may be eloquent reader-. 
as well as eloquent speakers. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 149 

IY. Loud Force. 

Loud force is the tone used to express courage, bold- 
ness, defiance, anger, grandeur, and sublimity. It is 
used by the public speaker in addressing a large audi- 
ence, or when speaking under the sway of strong 
emotion. 

This degree of force requires full and deep breathing, 
and a vigorous use of the vocal organs. 

The middle ; pitch is the appropriate key of loud force. 
A high pitch weakens the effect of forcible reading or 
declamation. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Joy! Joy! Shout, shout aloud for joy. 

2. Hark to the brazen blare of the bugle ! 
Hark to the rolling clatter of the drums. 

3. Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, for- 

ward, let us range; 
Let the great world spin forever down the ring- 
ing grooves of change. 

4. Alexander's feast. 
Now strike the golden lyre again ; 
A louder yet, and yet a louder strain. 
Break his bands of sleep asunder, 
And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder. 

Dbyden. 
5. revenge. 

And longer had she sung— but, with a frown, 

Eevenge impatient rose. 
He threw his blood-stained sword in thunder down, 

And, with a withering look, 

The war-denouncing trumpet took, 
And blew a blast, so loud and dread, 
Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe : 

And ever and anon, be beat 

The doubling drum with furious heat Collins. 



150 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

C. MILTON'S "PARADISE LOST." 

Now storming fury rose, 
And clamor such as heard in heaven till 11610 
Was never ; arms on armor clashing, brayed 
Horrible discord, and the madding wheels 
Of brazen chariots raged : dire was the noise 
Of conflict; overhead the dismal hiss 
Of fiery darts in flaming volleys flew, 
And flying vaulted either host with fire. 
So under fiery cope, together rushed 
Both battles main, with ruinous assdult 
And inextinguishable rage. All heaven 
Resounded; and had earth been then, all earth, 
Had to her center shook. What wonder? where 
Millions of fierce encountering angels fought 
On dither side, the least of whom could wield 
These elements, and arm him with the force 
Of all their regions. 

7. THE BELLS. 

Hear the loud alarum bells — 
Brazen bells ! 
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells ! 
In the startled ear of night 
How they scream out their affright ! 
Too much horrified to speak, 
They can only shriek, shriek, 
Out of tune, 
In the clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire. 
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire. 
Leaping higher, higher, higher, 
With a desperate desire, 
And a resolute endeavor, 
Now, noio to sit or never 
By the side of the pale-faced moon! PoE . 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 151 

V. Veky Loud or Declamatory Force. 

Very loud force prevails in oratorical declamation 
before lame audiences. It is also heard in the tones of 
anger, of passiou, of command, in calling or shouting, 
and in intensely dramatic reading. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Now for the fight ! now for the cannon peal, 

Forward ! through blood and toil, and cloud, and 
fire ! 
Glorious the shout, the shock, the crash of steel, 
The volley's roll, the rocket's blasting spire. 

2. To arms ! they come ! the Greek ! the Greek ! 

3. Liberty ! Freedom ! Tyranny is dead. 

4. Thy threats, thy mercy I defy, 

I give thee in thy teeth the lie. 

5. He raised a shout as he drew on 
Till all the welkin rang again : 

" Elizabeth ! Elizabeth ! " 

6. From every hill, by every sea, 

In shouts proclaim the great decree, 
11 All chains are hurst, cdl men are free!" 
Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah ! 

7. SPARTACUS TO THE GLADIATORS. 

[Radical and vanishing stress, and strongly marked circumflex in- 
flections.'] 

Ye stand here now like giants, as ye are. The strength 
of brass is in your toughened sinews; but to-morrow 
some Roman Adonis, breathing sweet perfume from his 
curly locks, shall with his Illy fingers pat your red 
brdwn, and bet his sesterces upon your blood. Hark ! 
hear ye yon lion roaring in his den ? 'T is three days 
since he tasted flesh; but to-morrow he shall break his 



152 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

fast upon yoilrs, and a dainty meal for him ye will be. 
If ye are beasts, then stand here like fat oxen, waiting 
for the butcher s knife ! If ye are men, follow me ! 
Strike down yon guard, gain the mountain passes, and 
there do bloody wbr\ as did your sires at old Th> r- 
mbpylce ! Is Sparta dead ? Is the old Grecian spirit 
frozen in your veins, that you do crouch and cower like 
a belabored hound beneath his master's lash? Oh, com- 
TCides ! wdrrim^s ! Tlirdcians ! if we must fight, let us 
fii»ht for ourselves ! If we must slaughter, let us slaughter 
our oppressors ! If we must die, let it be under the 
clear -shy, by the bright ivdtcrs, in noble, honorable 

utlttLC. Kellogg. 

8. CATILINE'S DEFIANCE. 

Conscript fathers, 
I do not rise to waste the night in icords : 
Let that plebeian talk ; 't is not my trade ; 
But here I stand for right! — Let him show jwbofs! 
For Roman right ; though none, it seems, dare stand 
To take their share with me. Ay, cluster there S 
Cling to your master, judges, Romans, slaves ! 
His charge is false. I dare him to his proofs. 

Crolt. 

9. 11ICIIELIEU. 

Who spake of life ? 
I bade thee grasp that treasure as thine honor — 
A jewel worth wdiole liecatombs of lives ! 
Begone! redeem thine honor! Bach to Marion — 
Or Baradas — or Orleans — track the robber — 
Regain the packet — or crawl on to age — 
Age and gray hdirs like mine — and know thou 'at lost 
That which had made thee great and saved thy cbuntry. 
See me not till thou 'st bought the right to seek me. 
Away ! Nay, chhr thee ! thou hast not fail'd yet — 
There 's no such wdrd as fail. bulwer. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 153 

10. FREEDOM. 

8. If I could stand for a moment upon one of your 
high mountain tops, far above all the kingdoms of the 
civilized world, and there might sde, coming up, one 
after another, the bravest and wisest of the ancient 
warriors, and statesmen, and kings, and monarchs, and 
urie'sts ; and if, as they came up, I might be permitted 
to ask from them an expression of opinion upon such 
a case as this, with a common voice and m thunder tones, 
reverberating through a thousand valleys, and echoing 
down the ages, they would cry : " Liberty, Freedom, the 
Universal Brotherhood of Man!" I join that shout; I 
swell that anthem ; I echo that praise forever, and 
for evemnbrc. 

11. THE WAR INEVITABLE. 

They tell us, sir, that we are iveak — unable to cope 
with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we 
be stronger 'I Will it be the next iveek, or the next 
year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and 
when a British guard shall be stationed in every house ? 
Sfhall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction ? 
Shall we acquire the means of effectual | resistance by 
lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive 
phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us 
hand and foot ? SIf, we are not weak, if we make a 
proper use of those means which the God of nature 
hath placed in our power. It is in vain, sir, to extenu- 
ate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace ! — but 
there is no peace. The war is actually begun / The 
next gale that sweeps from the ndrtfi will bring to our 
ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are 
already in the field ! Why stand we here Idle ? What 
is it that gentlemen wish ? What would they helve ? 
Is life so clear, or. peace so siceet, as to be purchased at 
the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty 



154 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

God ! I know not what course others may take ; but 
as for m4 3 give me liberty, or give me death ! 

Patrick Henry. 

VI. Eecapitulation of Force. 

1. Force must be regulated by the thought or feeling to 
be expressed. 

2. Soft force prevails in the expression of peaceful 
thought, of sentiment, of tranquillity, and of suppressed 
emotion. 

3. Moderate force is the natural tone of conversation 
and of narrative, descriptive, and didactic composition. 

4. Loud force prevails in the expression of anger, ])as- 
sion, sublimity, command, and strong feeling. 

5. Very loud force prevails in calling and shouting; 
in cries of alarm, fear, and terror ; and in intense dra- 
matic expression. 

Examples of Force. 

VERY SOFT. 

Low, low, breathe and blow, wind of the western sea. 

SOFT. 

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank. 

MODERATE. 

Marley was dead, to begin with. 

EOUD. 

Hear the loud alarum bells — brazen bells ! 
How they clang, and clash, and roar. 

VERY LOUD. 

Liberty ! freedom ! Tyranny is dead. 

Require each pupil to select, write out, and read in the class, a 
similar set of quoted illustrations. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 155 

SECTION II 

STBESS OF VOICE. 

Stress denotes the manner of applying volume of voice 
to single words or sounds. The elocutionary divisions 
of stress are : 

1. Eadical > 4. Thorough = 

2. Median <> 5. Compound X 

3. Vanishing ^> 6. Intermittent ?^Sz 

The radical and the median stress are the most im- 
portant and the most used of these divisions; and to 
these the attention of school readers should be chiefly 
directed. The other forms of stress mainly concern the 
special elocutionist or the actor; and may, therefore, be 
treated very briefly. 

I. EADICAL STEESS. 

1. In radical stress, the force strikes abruptly upon 
the radix, or be<nnnin^ of a word or a sound. It cor- 
responds to the diminuendo in music. 

2. It may be illustrated by exploding the full force 
of the voice upon the initial vowel in the following 
words : (1) ale, arm, all, 5ld, ooze. (2) at, end, in, on, up. 

3. Of this stress, Dr. Eush says : " There are so few 
speakers able to give a radical stress with this moment- 
ary burst, and therefore so few who may comprehend 
the mere description of it, that I must draw an illus- 
tration from the effort of coughing. A single impulse 
of coughing is not in all points exactly like the abrupt 
voice on syllables, for that single impulse is a forcing 
out of almost all the breath, which is not the case in 
syllabic utterance ; yet if the tonic element be employed 
as the vocality of coughing, its abrupt opening will truly 
represent the function of radical stress, when used in 
discourse. 



156 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

4. "It is this stress which draws the cutting edcrc of 
words across the ear, and startles even stupor into atten- 
tion ; this, which lessens the fatigue of listening, and 
out-voices the murmur and unruly stir of an assembly ; 
and a sensibility to this, through a general instinct of 
the animal ear, which gives authority to the groom, and 
makes the horse submissive to his angry accent. 

5. "Besides the fullness, loudness, and abruptness of 
the radical stress, when employed for distinct articula- 
tion, the tonic sound itself should be a pure vocality. 
When mixed with aspiration, it loses the brilliancy that 
serves to increase the impressive effect of the explosive 
force." 

Distinctions of Eadical Stress. 

1. Eadical stress may be distinguished as unimpas- 
sionccl and impassioned. 

2. The un impassioned radical is used in narrative, 
descriptive, and didactic reading, to give a clear, dis- 
tinct, energetic style of expression. The impassioned 
radical is the strong, full, abrupt utterance which char- 
acterizes the voice when under the influence of strong 
passions, such as anger, hatred, etc. It is the stress of 
authoritative command, of strength, and of power. 

I. The Unimpassioned Eadical. 

This form of the radical stress is generally combined 
with moderate force and middle pitch. In the unim- 
passioned radical the vowel and liquid sounds are cut 
short as in the staccato movement in music. 

This stress is characteristic of vivacity, gavety. humor, 
and of clear, distinct, and definite statement. 

Unimpassioned Eadical Pkill. 
1. Eepeat rapidly four times, with the falling inflec- 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 157 

tion, the short vowel sounds, a- e, 1, o, u ; the long 
vocals, a, e, I, 5, u. 

2. Count from one to twenty with moderate force 
and fallino- inflection, cutting short the words as in 
staccato movement. 

3. Is this a time to be gloomy and sad, 

When our mother nature laughs around ? 
When even the deep blue heavens look glad, 

And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground? 

4. Hear the sledges, with the bells — silver bells, 
What a world of merriment their melody foretells ; - 

How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, 
In the icy air of night ! 

Examples of Unimpassioned Eadical. 

1. Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link,, 
Spink, spank, spink; 
Chee ! chee ! chee ! 

2. Sometimes, with secure delight, 
The upland hamlets will invite, 
When the merry bells ring round, 
And the jocund rebecs sound 
To many a youth and many a maid, 
Dancing in the checkered shade. 

3. IIUDIBHAS. 

In mathematics he was greater 
Than Tycho Brahe or Erra Pater; 
For he, by geometric scale, 
Could take the size of pots of ale ; 
Eesolve by sines and tangents, straight, 
If bread or butter wanted weight ; 
And wisely tell what hour o' th' day 
The clock does strike, by algebra. 



158 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

4. RHYME OF THE EAIL. 

Singing through the forests, 

Battling over ridges, 
Shooting under arches, 

Rumbling over bridges ; 
Whizzing through the mountains, 

Buzzing o'er the vale — 
Bless me ! this is pleasant, 

Riding on the rail! 

5. SUMMER. 

There 's a dance of Iktvcs in that aspen bbwer, 
There's a titter of ivlnds in that beechen tree, 

There 's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower 
And a laugh from the ordok that runs to the sea ! 

Brya>t. 

6. SUMMER. 

And what is so rare as a day in June ? 

Then, if ever, come perfect days ; 
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, 

And over it softly her warm ear lays ; 
Whether we look or whether we listen, 
We hear life murmur or see it glisten ; 
Every clod feels a stir of might, 

An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 
And, groping blindly above it for light, 



Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers. 



7. SEA-WEED. 

When descends on the Atlantic 

The gigantic 
Storm-wind of the equinox, 
Landward in his wrath he scourges 

The toiling surges, 
Laden with sea-weed from the rocks 



Lowell. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 159 

Ever drifting, drifting, drifting 

On the shining 
Currents of the restless main; 
Till in sheltered coves, and reaches 

Of sandy beaches, 

All have found repose again. Longfellow. 

8. THE DRUM. 

At a distance, down the street, making music with their 

feet, 
Came the soldiers from the wars, all embellished with 

their scars, 
To the tapping of a drum, of a drum ; 
To the pounding and the sounding of a drum ! 
Of a drum, of a drum, of a drum ! drum, drum, drum ! 

9. COMPENSATION. 

Experienced men of the world know very well that it 
is best to pay scot and lot as they go along, and that 
a man often pays dear for a small frugality. The bor- 
rower runs in his own debt. Has a man gained any- 
thing who has received a hundred favors and rendered 
none ? Has he gained by borrowing, through indolence 
or cunning, his neighbor's wares, or horses, or money ? 
There arises on the deed the instant acknowledgment 
of benefit on the one part, and of debt on the other; 
that is, of superiority and inferiority. The transaction 
remains in the memory of himself and his neighbor; 
and every new transaction alters, according to its nature, 
their relation to each other. He may soon come to see 
that he had better have broken his own bones than to 
have ridden in his neighbor's coach, and that "the 
highest price he can pay for a thing is to ask for it." 

Emerson. 



160 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

IT. The Impassioned Radical! 

1. The impassioned radical stress falls on the ear 
with abrupt, explosive force, like the beat of a I 
drum. A good illustration of extreme radical stress is 
afforded by loud, explosive laughter. 

2. The impassioned radical marks positive assertion, 
strong determination, and authoritative command. It 
is the abrupt stress of courage, boldness, anger, and 
hatred. 

3. The absence of radical stress, so common in un- 
trained readers and speakers, indicates feebleness, inde- 
cision, and confusion or timidity. A lack of radical 
stress may kill the most impressive sentiments, or may 
transform a gay, joyous, lively piece of composition 
into dull, joyless, or even melancholy expression. 

4. Carried to excess, however, the radical stress be- 
comes the mark of egotism, dogmatism, and undue self- 
assertion. It often characterizes the rant of the stump 
speaker who "tears a passion into tatters." 

5. There is little tendency in school to' excess of 
radical stress : on the contrary, there is generally a lack 
of it. 

Impassioned Radical Stress Drill. 

1. Repeat, three times, with abrupt, explosive force, 
the long vocals, a, c, I, o, ii. 

2. Repeat; in the same manner, the following : ale, 
arm, all, ooze. 

3. Repeat, four times, with explosive laughter : ha S 
ha ! ha ! ho ! ho ! ho ! haw ! haw ! haw ! 

4. Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching. 

5. AwdJcef arise! or be forever fallen ! 

6. Up, drairhride/e, groom, what, warder, lib! 
Let the portcMlis fall. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 161 

7. To arms! to arms! to arms! they cry. 

8. Shoulder arms! forward march! halt! Right 
about face, march ! 

9. Hold ! hold ! for your lives ! 

10. Back to thy punishment, false fugitive. 

11. He was struck, struck like a dog. 

12. Up ! comrades, up ! in Rokeby's halls 
Ne'er be it said our courage falls. 

13. Send out more horses ! skirr the country round. 

Awake ! Awake ! 

14. Ring the alarum bell ! Murder and treason ! 
Malcolm ! awake ! Malcolm ! Ban quo • 

15. THE CLANSMAN TO HIS CHIEF. 

"Macldinc! you've scourged me like a hound; — 
You should have struck me to the ground. 
You should have played a chieftains part ; — 
You should have stabbed me to the heart. 

" You should have crushed me unto death ; 
But here I swear with living breath, 
That for this ivrong which you have done, 
I '11 wreak my vengeance on your son. 

" I scSm forgiveness, haughty man ! 
You 've Injured me before the clan ; 
And naught but blood shall wipe away 
The shame I have endured to-day." mackay. 

16. ALEXANDRA. 

Welcome her, thunders of fort and of fleet ! 

Welcome her, thundering cheer of the street ! 

Welcome her, all things useful and sweet ; 

Scatter the blossoms under her feet ! 

Break, happy land, into earlier flowers ! 

Make music, bird, in the new budded bowers ! 

li 



162 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Blazon your mottoes | of blessing and prayer! 
Welcome her, welcome her, all that is ours ! 
Warble, bugle ; and trumpet, blare ! 
Flags, flutter out | upon turrets and towers ! 
Flames, on the windy headland flare ! 
Utter your jubilee, steeple and spire ! 
Clash, ye bells, in the merry March air! 
Flash, ye cities' in rivers of fire ! 
Rush to the roof, sudden rocket, and higher | 
Melt into the stars for the land's desire! 

TtXSYSON. 
17. THE OLD CONTINENTALS. 

And grummer, grummcr, grummer, 
Rolled the roll of the drummer, 
Through the morn ! 

And louder, louder, LOUDER, 
Cracked the loud gunpowder, 
Cracked amain ! 

Then higher, higher, higher, 
Burned the old-fashioned fire 
Through the ranks ! 

And rounder, rounder, ROUNDER, 
Roared the iron six-pounder, 
Hurling death ! 

18. THE BRAZEN BELLS. 

Hear the loud alarum bells, — 
Brazen bells ! 
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells ! 
In the startled ear of night 
How they scream out their affright ! 
Too much horrified to speak, 
They can only shriek, shriek, 
Out of tune, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 163 

In the clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, 
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire 
Leaping higher, higher, higher, 
With a desperate desire, 
And a resolute endeavor, 
Now — noiv to sit or never, 
By the side of the pale-face moon. 
the bells, bells, bells, 
What a tale their terror tells 
Of despair! 
How they clang and clash and roar ! 
What a horror they outpour 
On the bosom of the palpitating air! 
Yet the ear, it fully knows, 
By the twanging 
And the clanging, 
How the danger ebbs and flows; 
Yet the ear distinctly tells, 
In the jangling 
And the wrangling, 
How the danger sinks and swells, 
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells — 
Of the bells— 
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, 
Bells, bells, bells— 
In the clamor and clangor of the bells ! PoE . 

19. INDEPENDENCE. 

Bead this Declaration | at the head of the hrmy : 
every sivbrd | will be drawn from its scabbard, and the 
solemn vow | uttered, to maint&in it, or to perish | on 
the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit ; religion | 
will approve it, and the love of religious liberty | will 
cling round it, resolved \ to stand with it, or fall with 
it. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there; let 
them | hear it, who heard the first roar | of the enemy's 



164 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

cdnnon; let them | see it, who saw their brothers and 
their sSns | fall on the field of Banker IPdl, and in the 
streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very vxMls 
will cry out | in its support. Webster. 

20. FREEDOM. 

Many years long gone, I took my stand by Free- 
dom, and where | in rny earliest youth | my fed | were 
planted, there | my manhood | and my age shall march. 
And for 6ne, I am not ashamed of Freedom. I know 
her power. I rejoice | in her majesty. I walk | beneath 
her banner. I gl6ry | in her strength. I have seen Free- 
dom | in history, again and again; with mine own 
eyes | I have watched her | again and again | struck 
ddwn | on a hundred chosen fields of tattle. 

I have seen her friends | fly /rd??i her ; I have seen 
fdes | gather round her ; I have seen them | hind her to 
the stake; I have seen them give her ashes to the 
winds — regdthering them again | that they might scatter 
them | yet more vhddy ; but when her foes | turned to 
cxiilt, I have seen her again | meet them | face to face, 
resplendent in complete steel, and brandishing | in her 
strong right hand | a flaming sivord, red with insuffer- 
able light. 

And I take courage. The people | gather round her. 
The Genius of America | will at last | lead her s6ns to 
Freedom. RuCER 

21. PERORATION OF BUZFUZ '. — BARDELL VS. PICKWICK. 

[The following is an example of the bombastic style of ranting oratory, 
which is a burlesque of true art.] 

Of this man I will say little. The subject presents 
but few attractions; and /, gentlemen, am not the man, 
nor are you, gentlemen, the men, to delight in the con- 
templation of revolting heartlessness, and of systematic 
vlllany. I say systematic villauy, gentlemen; and when 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 165 

I say systematic villainy, let me tell the defendant Pick- 
wick, if he be in court, as I am informed he is, that it 
would have been more decent in him, more becoming, if 
he had stopped away. Let me tell him, further, that a 
counsel, in the discharge of his duty, is neither to be 
intimidated, nor bullied, nor put down; and that any 
attempt to do either the one or the other will recoil on 
the head of the atte'mpter, be he 'plaintiff or be he de- 
fendant, be his name Pickwick, or Noakes, or Stoakes, 
or Stiles, or Brown, or Thompson. 

But Pickwick, gentlemen, Pickwick, the ruthless de- 
stroyer of this domestic oasis in the desert of Goswell 
street, — Pickwick, who has choked up the well, and 
thrown ashes on the sward, — Pickwick, who comes before 
you to-day with his heartless tomato-sauce and warm- 
ing-pans, — Pickwick, still rears his head with unblush- 
ing effrontery, and gazes without a sigh on the ruin he 
has made ! Damages, gentlemen, heavy damages, is the 
only punishment with which you can visit him, — the 
only recompense you can award to my client ! And for 
those damages she now appeals to an enlightened, a high- 
minded, a right- feeling , a conscientious, a dispassionate, a 
sympathizing, a contemplative jury of her civilized country- 
men ! dickens. 

II. MEDIAN STBESS. 

1. The median stress corresponds to the "swell" in 
music. It is strongest in the middle of a sound or a 
word. It is adapted to the expression of harmonious 
and poetic ideas. 

2. "It is," says Russell, " the natural utterance of those 
emotions which allow the intermingling of reflection and 
sentiment with expression, and which purposely dwell 
on sound, as a means of enhancing their effect. 

3. "This mode of stress is one of the most important 



166 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

iu its effect on language, whether in the form of speak- 
ing or of reading. Destitute of its ennobling and ex- 
pansive sound, the recitation of poetry sinks into the 
style of dry prose, the language of ^devotion loses its 
sacredness, the tones of oratory lose their power over 
the heart. 

4. " There is great danger, however, of this natural 
beauty of vocal expression being converted into a fault 
by being overdone. The habit recognized under the name 
of mouthing has an excessively increased and prolonged 
median swell for one of its chief characteristics. In 
this shape, it becomes a great deformity in utterance, — 
particularly when combined with what is no infrequent 
concomitant, the faulty mode of voice known as chant- 
ing or singing. Like sweetness among savors, this truly 
agreeable quality of sound becomes distasteful or dis- 
gusting when in the least degree excessive. 

5. "The practice of median stress, therefore, requires 
very close attention. The spirit of poetry and the lan- 
guage of eloquence, — the highest effects of human ut- 
terance, — render it indispensable as an accomplishment 
in elocution. But a chaste and discriminating ear is 
requisite to decide the just degree of its extent. 

6. "Median stress has the form of effusive utterance 
in sublime, solemn, and pathetic emotions : it becomes 
expulsive, in those which combine force with grandeur, 
as in admiration, courage, authoritative command, indig- 
nation, and similar feelings. But its effect is utterly in- 
compatible with the abruptness of explosion, Its com- 
paratively musical character adapts it, with special felicity 
of effect, to the melody of verse, and the natural swell 
of poetic expression." 

7. Median stress requires a prolongation of vowel and 
liquid sounds; it is a contrast to the abruptness of the 
radical stress. It prevails in combination with "pure 
tone" and the "orotund." 



school elocution. 167 

Median Stress Dkill. 

1. Eepeat, three times, the long vocals, a, e, 1, 5, u : 

(1) With moderate force and effusive median stress. 

(2) With expulsive median stress. (3) With increased 
force and expulsive median stress. 

2. In the same manner repeat, four times, the vocals, 
e, a, a, a, o, o. 

3. Count from one to twenty, with soft force and 
effusive median stress ; with loud force and expulsive 
median stress. 

4. Eepeat, three times, the following words with ex- 
pulsive median stress : all, call, ball, tall, hall, pall. 

5. Eepeat four times, in monotone, with full swell on 
the prolonged /, the following : bells, bells, bells, bells, 
bells. 

Examples of Median Stress. 

1. Eoll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! 

2. Ye winds, ye unseen currents of the air, 
Softly ye played a few brief hours ago. 

3. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. 

4. Hail ! holy light, offspring of heaven, first-born. 

5. The rivers, lakes, and ocean, all stood still. 

6. Sweet Auburn ! loveliest village of the plain. 

7. Was it the chime of a tiny bell 

That came so sweet to my dreaming ear ? 
Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell 

That he winds on the beach, so mellow and clear. 

8. Eing out the old, ring in the new, 
Eing, happy bells, across the snow. 



168 scnooL ELOCUTION. 

9. Lord, thou art clothed with honor and majesty. 

10. And where her sweetest theme she chose, 

A soft, responsive voice was heard at every close, 
And Hope, enchanted, smiled and waved her golden hair. 

11. These are thy glorious works, parent of good, 
Almighty ! Thine this universal frame. 

12. Then the angel threw up his glorious hands to 
the heaven of heavens, saying : " End is there none to 
the universe of God. Lo ! also, there is no beginning." 

13. Peal out evermore, 

Peal as ye pealed of yore, 
Brave old bells, on each Sabbath day. 

14. I heard the bells on Christmas Day 
Their old, familiar carols play, 

And wild and sweet, 
The words repeat 
Of peace on earth, good-will to men ! 

15. Thou, too, sail on, Ship of State ! 
Sail od, Union, strong and great ! 

16. These struggling tides of life that seem 
In wayward, aimless course to tend, 
Are eddies of the mighty stream 

That rolls to its appointed end. brtakt. 

17. From the wall into the sky, 

From the roof along the spire : 
Ah, the souls of those that die 
Are but sunbeams lifted higher. Longfellow. 

18. So shall our voice of sovereign choice 

Swell the deep bass of duty done, 

And strike the key of time to be, 

When God and man shall speak as one! 

Wbrtisb. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 169 

19. Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak 

December, 
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost 

upon the floor. 
Eagerly I wished the morrow : vainly I had sought 

to borrow 
From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the 

lost Lenore — 
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels 

name Lenore — 

Nameless here for evermore. PoE . 

20. Babie, dainty Babie Bell, 

How fair she grew from day to day ! 

What woman-nature filled her eyes — 

What poetry within them lay ! 

Those deep and tender twilight eyes, 

So full of meaning, pure and bright, 

As if she yet stood in the light 

Of those oped gates of Paradise. aldrich. 

21. The splendor falls on castle walls 

And snowy summits old in story : 
The long light shakes across the lakes, 
And the wild cataract leaps in glory. 
Blow, bugle, blow; set the wild echoes flying; 
Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes — dying, dying, dying. 

Tennyson. 

22. By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, 
Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the ivorld. 

Emerson. 

23. Dow T n the dark future, through long generations, 

The echoing sounds grow fainter, and then cease ; 
And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations, 
I hear once more the voice of Christ say, " Peace ! " 



170 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Peace ! and no longer from its brazen portals 
The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies ! 

But beautiful as songs of the immortals, 

The holy melodies of love arise. lomotellow. 

24 Youth longs and manhood strives, but age remem- 
bers — 
Sits by the raked-up ashes of the past; 
Spreads its thin hands above the whitening embers 
That warm its creeping life-blood till the last. 

But my gentle sisters ! my brothers ! 

These thick-sown snow-flakes hint of toil's release ; 
These feebler pulses bid me leave to others 

The tasks once welcome — evening asks for peace. 

Time claims bis tribute ; silence now is golden ; 

Let me not vex the too long-suffering lyre ; 
Though to your love untiring still beholden, 

The curfew tells me — cover up the fire. holmes. 

25. 0, a wonderful stream is the river Time, 
As it runs through the realm of tears, 
With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme, 
And a boundless sweep and surge sublime, 

As it blends with the Ocean of Years. tatob. 

26. THE WEDDING BELLS. 

[Head this stanza with pure tone, middle pitch, slow movement, and 
orotund quality.'] 

Hear the mellow wedding -\hA\s — golden bells ! 
What a world of hclppiness their harmony foretells ! 
Through the balmy air of night, how they ring out their 
delight ! 

From the molten-golden notes, 

All in tune, 
What a liquid ditty floats 
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats 
On the moon ! 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 171 

Oh, from out the sounding cells, 
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells ! 

How it swells, how it dwells 
On the Future ! How it tells of the rapture that impels 
To the swinging and the ringing of the bells, bells, bells, 
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells — 
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells. PoE . 

27. INVOCATION TO LIGHT. 

[Bead the following selection with orotund quality, slow movement, 
and strong force.'] 

Hail ! holy Light — offspring of Heaven, first-born, 

Or of the Eternal, co-eternal beam ; 

May I express thee unblamed ? since God is light, 

And never but in unapproache'd light, 

Dwelt from eternity — dwelt then in thee, 

Bright effluence of bright Essence increate ! 

Or hear'st thou, rather, pure ethereal stream, 

Whose fountain who shall tell ? — Before the sun, 

Before the heavens thou wert, and, at the voice 

Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest 

The rising world of waters, dark and deep, 

Won from the void and formless infinite. milton. 

28. LIBERTY OF THE PEESS. 

1. The liberty of the press is the highest safeguard 
to all free government. Ours could not exist without 
it. It is like a great, exulting, and abounding river. 
It is fed by the dews of heaven, which distill their 
sweetest drops to form it. It gushes from the rill, as 
it breaks from the deep caverns of the earth. It is 
augmented by a thousand affluents, that dash from the 
mountain top, to separate again into a thousand boun- 
teous and irrigating streams around. 

2. On its broad bosom it bears a thousand barks. 
There genius spreads its purpling sail. There poetry 
dips its silver oar. There art, invention, discovery, 



172 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

science, morality, religion, may safely and securely float. 
It wanders through every land. It is a genial, cordial 
source of thought and inspiration, whatever it touches, 
whatever it surrounds. Upon its borders there grows 
every flower of grace, and every fruit of truth. bakes. 

29. FROM THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 

Bless the Lord, my soul. Lord my God, Thou 
art very great ; Thou art clothed with honor and majesty : 
who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; who 
stretchest out the heavens like a curtain ; who layeth 
the beams of His chambers in the waters; who maketh 
the clouds His chariot; who walketh upon the wings of 
the wind; who laid the foundations of the earth, that 
it should not be removed forever. 

30. ossian's address to the sun. 
thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my 
fathers ! whence are thy beams, O sun ! thy everlasting 
light ? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty ; the 
stars hide themselves in the sky ; the moon, cold and 
pale, sinks in the western wave. But thou thyself 
movest alone : who can be a companion of thy course ? 

III. VANISHING STEESS. 

1. The vanishing or terminal stress is used when the 
force of voice hangs upon the final part of a word. It 
corresponds to the crescendo in music. It is a form of 
stress expressive of very strong emphasis, and is often 
combined with the rising or falling circumflex. 

2. Used with a moderate decree of force, this stress 
is applied in the expression of petulance, of peevish- 
ness, of impatience, of willfulness, and of querulous 
complaint ; combined with strong force, it is applied to 
express persistent determination, astonishment, amaze- 
ment, and horror. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 173 

3. Concerning the use of this stress, Prof. Eussell 
remarks : " Like all other forms of impassioned utter- 
ance which are strongly marked in the usages of natural 
habit, this property of voice is indispensable to appropri- 
ate elocution, whether in speaking or reading. Without 
'vanishing stress,' declamation will sometimes lose its 
manly energy of determined will, and become feeble song 
to the ear. High-wrought resolution can never be ex- 
pressed without it. Even the language of protest, though 
respectful in form, needs the aid of the right degree of 
vanishing stress, to intimate its sincerity and its firm- 
ness of determination, as well as its depth of conviction. 

4. " But when we extend our views to the demands 
of lyric and dramatic poetry, in which high-wrought 
emotion is so abundant an element of effect, the full 
command of this property of voice, as the natural utter- 
ance of extreme passion, becomes indispensable to true, 
natural, and appropriate style." 

EXAMPLES. 

[The italicized words have tlie vanishing stress, and are marked vjith 
Uie circumflex inflection.^ 

1. I know we do not mean to submit. We never shdll 
submit. 

2. Earth may hide, waves engulf, fire consume us, 
But they shdll not to slavery doom us. 

3. I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak: 
I '11 have my bond : and therefore speak no more. 

4. But they shall go to school. Don't tell me they 
shouldn't. (You are so aggravating, Caudle, you'd spoil 
the temper of an angel !) They shdll go to school : mark 
that ! and if they get their deaths of cold, it 's not my 
fault; I diclnt lend the umbrella. 

5. " Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend" I 
shrieked, upstarting ; 



174 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

"Get thee back into the tempest, and the night's 
Plutonian shore ! 
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy 

soul hath spoken ! 
Leave my loneliness unbroken ! quit the bust above 

my dbor ! 
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form 
from off my door ! " 

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." 

6. FROM GEATTAN'S SPEECH. 

Here I stand for impeachment or trial. I dare accu- 
sation ! I defy the honorable gentleman ! I defy the 
government ! I defy their whole phdlanx ! Let them come 
forth ! 

7. FBOM "WEBSTER. 

On such occasions, I will place myself on the extreme 
boundary of my right, and bid defiance to the arm that 
would push me from it. 

8. the seminole's reply. 
I loathe ye in my bosom, 

I scorn ye with mine eye, 
I '11 taunt ye with my latest breath, 

And fight ye till I die. parks 

9. RIENZI. 

I come not here to talk. Ye know too well 
The story of our thralldom. We are slaves ! 
The bright sun rises to his course and lights 
A race of slaves ! He sets, and his last beam 
Fdlls on a slave. mitford. 

10. BHUTU8 TO CASSITJS. 

Frit, till your proud heart break ; 

Go, show your slaves how choleric you are, 

And make your bondsmen tremble. Must / budge ? 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 175 

Must I observe you ? Must I stand and crouch 
Under your testy humor ? By the gods, 
You shall digest the venom of your spleen, 
Though it do split you ; for, from this day forth, 
I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my Idughter, 

When yOU are Waspish. Shakespeare. 

IV. THOEOUGH STEESS. 

Thorough or through stress corresponds to the organ 
tone in music. The force is powerful enough to per- 
vade an entire word or sound — the beginning, the 
middle, and the end. It is indicated thus : ( = ). 

Thorough stress prevails in vehement declamation 
and impassioned oratory when the speaker is under the 
sway of intense excitement. It is also used in calling 
or shouting, when the voice is rolled out in a full and 
steady stream. 

Carried to excess, this stress is characteristic of rant, 
bombast, and the worst faults of untrained speakers. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Vanguard ! to ri^ht and left the front unfold. 

2. Peal ! peal ! peal ! 

Bells of brass and bells of steel. 

3. "To all the truth we tell! we tell!" 
Shouted in ecstasies a bell. 

4. And like a silver clarion rung, 

" Excelsior." 

5. Advance your standards ! draw your willing swords. 

6. Forward the light brigade ! 

7. Clang ! clang ! clang ! the massive anvils rang. 

8. " Ship ahoy ! ship ahoy ! " shouted the captain. 

9. Shoulder — arms ! .Forward march ! Halt ! 



176 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

10. Charge for the guns ! Charge ! Charge ! 

11. Then rose the awful cry, " Fire ! fire ! fire /" 

12. Halloo! ho-o-o-o! come here! Halloo!. 

13. Hurrah! hurrah! for the fiery fort is ours; 

Victory ! Victory ! Victory ! 

14. Liberty ! freedom ! Tyranny is dead ; 

Kun hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets ! 

15. Rejoice, ye men of Anglers ! ring your bells ; 

King John, your king and England's, doth approach. 
Open your gates, and give the victors way ! 

16. "0, spare my child, my joy, my pride! 
0, give me back my child!" she cried; 
"My child I my child ! " with sobs and tears, 
She shrieked upon his callous ears. 

17. "Nine," by the cathedral clock! 

Chill the air with rising damps ; 
Drearily from Mock to block 

In the gloom the bell-man tramps — 
" Child lost f Child lost ! 

Blue eyes, curly hair, 
Pink dress — child lost ! " 

18. Body of turkey, head of owl, 

Wings a-droop like a rained-on fowl, 
Feathered and ruffled in every part, 
Skipper Ireson stood in the cart. 
Scores of women, old and young, 
Strong of muscle, and glib of tongue, 
Pushed and pulled up the rocky lane, 
Shouting and singing the shrill refrain : 
"Here's Find Oirson, fur his horrd Jiorrt, 
Torrd an futhcrrd an' corrd in, a corrt, 
By the ivomcn o' MorUecad /" 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 177 

19. fitz- james's defiance. 
Come 6nc, come till ! this rock shall fly 
From its firm base as soon as 1. scott. 

20. THE AMERICAN FLAG. 

Flag of the free heart's hope and home ! 

By angel hands | to valor given ; 
Thy stars | have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues | were born in heaven. 
Forever float | that standard sheet ! 

Where breathes the foe | but falls before us, 
With Freedom's soil | beneath our feet, 

And Freedom's banner | streaming ocr us ! 

Drake. 
21. MOLOCH. 

He called so loud, that all the hollow deep 
Of hell resounded. 

" Princes ! Potentates ! 
Warriors! the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost, 
If such astonishment as this can seize | 
Eterncd spirits; or have ye chosen this place 
To rest your wearied virtue, for the ease | ye find | 
To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven ? 
Or | in this abject posture \ have you sworn | 
To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds | 
Cherub and seraph | rolling in the flood, 
With scattered arms and ensigns; till, anon, 
His swift pursuers, from heaven's gates | discern | 
The advantage, and descending, tread us clbivn \ 
Thus drooping ; or with linked thunderbolts \ 
Transfix us to | the bottom of this gulf ? 
Awake ! arise ! or be forever fallen ! " milton. 

22. PERORATION OF WEBSTER'S REPLY TO HAYXE. 

The scene in the Senate Chamber of the United States, as Web- 
ster delivered this peroration, is thus described by C. W. March : 
The exulting rush of feeling with which he went through the 

12 



178 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

peroration threw a glow over his countenance, like inspiration — 
eye, brow, each feature, every line of his face seemed touched as 
with a celestial fire. The swell and roll of his voice struck upon 
the ears of the spell-bound audience, in deep and melo iious 
cadence, as waves upon the shore of the far-sounding sea. The 
Miltonic grandeur of his words was the fit expression of his thought 
and raised his hearers up to his theme. His voice, exerted to its 
utmost power, penetrated every recess and comer of the Senate — 
penetrated even the ante-rooms and stair-ways, as he pronounced 
in the deepest tones of pathos these words of solemn significance : 

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the 
Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess 
behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of pre- 
serving liberty when the bonds that unite us together 
shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself 
to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, 
with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the 
abyss bcloiv ; nor could I regard him as a safe counselor 
in the affairs of this gdvernment whose thoughts should 
be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union may 
be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condi- 
tion of the people when it shall be broken up and 
destroyed. While the Union lasts, we have high, excit- 
ing, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us 
and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate 
the veil. God grant that, in my day at least, that car- 
tctin may not rise ! Gbd grant that on my vision never 
may be opened ivhat lies behind! When my eyes shall 
be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, 
may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored 
fragments of a once glorious Union'; on States dissevered, 
discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feHa\ 
or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their 
last feeble and lingering gldnce, rather, behold the 
gorgeous Snsign of the republic, now haourn and horn 
throughout the earth, still full hiyJi advdnced, its arms 
and trophies streaming in their original liistcr, not a 






SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 179 

stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured; 
bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as 
" What is all this worth ? " nor those other words of 
delusion and folly, " Liberty /fast, and Union after- 
wards ; but everywhere, spread cdl over in characters of 
living light, blazing on cdl its ample folds, as they float 
over the sect and over the Iccnd, and in every wind under 
the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every 
true American heart — Liberty and Union, now and forever, 
one and inseparable. 

23. PERORATION OF BURKE ? S SPEECH ON THE IMPEACHMENT OF 
WARREN HASTINGS. 

Of this famous speech Macaulay says : " The energy and pathos 
of the great orator extorted expressions of unwonted admiration 
from all ; and, for a moment, seemed to pierce even the resolute 
heart of the defendant. The ladies in the galleries, unaccustomed 
to such displays of eloquence, excited by the solemnity of the occa- 
sion, and perhaps not unwilling to display their taste and sensibility, 
were in .a state of uncontrollable emotion. Handkerchiefs were 
pulled out ; smelling-bottles were handed round ; hysterical sobs 
and screams were heard, and some were even carried out in fits. 
At length, the orator concluded. Raising his voice, till the old 
arches of Irish oak resounded, he said : 

" I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great 
Britain in Parliament assembled, whose parliamentary 
trust he has abused. 

" I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great 
Britain, whose national character he has dishonored. 

'• I impeach him in the name of the people of India, 
whose Iccios, rights, and liberties he has subverted. 

" I impeach him in the name of the people of India, 
whose property he has destroyed, whose country he has 
laid waste and desolate. 

"I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, 
which he has cruelly outraged, Injured, and oppressed, in 
both se*xes. And I impeach him in the name and by the 



180 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

virtue of those eternal laws of justice, which ought equally 
to pervade every aye, condition, ran],, and situation, in 
the world." 

V. COMPOUND STRESS. 

Compound stress is a combination of* the radical and 
the vanishing stress upon the same word. Indeed, it 
may be considered as a very emphatic form of the 
emotional circumflex inflection. It is applied, like the 
circumflex, to express extreme astonishment, irony, sar- 
casm, mockery, and contempt. It is the stress of ex- 
treme emotion. 

In the following examples, the words upon which the 
compound stress falls are marked with the circumflex 
inflection. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Repeat, three times, with extreme astonishment : 
ah ! indeed ! 

2. Repeat, three times, with strong emphasis and the 
falling circumflex : eve, ale, arm, all, old, ooze. 

3. Repeat, with strong force and the rising circumflex : 
a, e, i, o, u ; the same with the falling circumflex. 

4. Banished from Borne ! What 's banished but set free 
From daily contact of the things I loathe / 
He dares not touch a hdir of Catiline. 

5. KING JOHN. 

Gone to be married, ! (/one to swear a pc''cc ! 

False blood to false h\oo<\ joined / gone- to be friSnds I 

Shall Louis have Blanche, and Blanche these provim 

Shaki -rr\ur. 

6. BPARTACUS. 

Is Sparta dead? Is the old Grecian spirit frSzen that 
you do vroiich and cower like a belabored hound beneath 
his master's lash ? 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 181 

7. JULIUS CESAR. 

Must I budge? 
Must I observe you ? Must / stand and crouch 
Under your testy humor ? By the gods, 
You shall digest the venom of your spleen 
Though it do split you ; for, from this day forth, 
1 11 use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter ■ 

Wheil yOU are 'Waspish ! Shakespeare. 

8. FROM CICERO'S ACCUSATION OF VERRES. 

Is it come to this ? Shall an inferior magistrate, a 
governor, who holds his whole power from the Koman 
people, in a Eoman province, within sight of Italy, hind, 
scourge, torture with fire and red-hot plates of iron, 
and at last put to the infamous death of the cross, a 
Eoman citizen ? 



VI. INTERMITTENT STRESS, OR THE TREMOR. 

1. Intermittent stress, or the tremor, is the tremulous 
force of voice upon a sound or a word. The tremor is 
characteristic of the tottering feebleness of old a°:e, of 
the weakness of sickness, or of the tones of a person 
shivering and trembling with cold, or with fear. 

2. It naturally occurs in the utterance of fear, grief, 
joy, sobbing, and laughter, when the emotions are so 
strong as to enfeeble the flow of breath. In extreme 
pathos, the voice often trembles or quickens with emotion. 

3. This form of stress must be very delicately applied, 
for, in excess, it becomes ridiculous. 

4. Concerning the appropriate application of this form 
of stress, Prof. Russell remarks: "In the reading or the 
recitation of lyric and dramatic poetry, this function of 
voice is often required for full, vivid, and touching 
expression. Without its appeals to sympathy, and its 
peculiar power over the heart, many of the most beau- 



182 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

tiful and touching passages of Shakespeare and Milton 
become dry and cold. Like the tremolo of the accom- 
plished vocalist in operatic music, it has a charm, for 
the absence of which nothing can atoue — since nature 
suggests it as the genuine utterance of the most deli- 
cate and thrilling emotion. 

5. "The perfect command of tremor requires often- 
repeated practice on elements, syllables, and words, as 
well as on appropriate passages of impassioned lan- 



Drill ox Tremor. 

1. Inhale ; give the tremulous sound of long a, thus : 
a — a — a — a, etc., prolonged until the breath is exhausted. 

2. In a similar manner, take each of the remaining 
long vowel sounds, e, I, o, u. 

3. Take a similar drill on a ; on a; on o. 

Examples of Tremor. 

1. OLD AGE. 

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, 

Whose trembling limbs hare borne him to your door, 
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span; — 

Oil! give relief; and Hear en will bless your store! 

2. GAFFER GRAY. 

"Ho! why dost thou shiver and shake, Gaffer Gray \ 
And why does thy nose look so blue ? " 

"'Tis the weather that's cold, 

'Tis I'm grown very old, 
And my doublet is not very new; Well-a-daif !" 

"Wordsworth 
3. OLD AGE. 

And still there came that silver tone, 

From the shriveled lips of the toothless crone — 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 183 

Let me never forget to my dying day 
The tone or the burden of her lay — 

"Passing avjay ! passing away I" pierpont. 

4. LAUGHING UTTERANCE. 

1. A fool, a fool, I met a fool in the forest; 
A motley fool, a miserable varlet. 
2. Oh ! then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. 

5. SOBBING. 

So Mary said, and Dora hid her face 

By Mary. There was silence in the room ; 

Arid all at once the old man burst in sobs : — 

" I have been to blame — to blame ! I have killed my son ! 

I have killed him — but I loved him — my dear son ! 

May God forgive me! — I have been to blame. 

Kiss me, my children I " Tennyson's Bora. 

6. GOODY BLAKE AND HARRY GILL. 

She prayed, her withered hand nprearing, 

While Harry held her by the arm — 
"God! who art never out of hearing, 

may he never more be warm ! " 
The cold, cold moon above her head, 

Thus on her knees did Goody pray : 
Young Harry heard what she had said, 

And icy cold he turned away. 

No word to any man he utters, 

Abed or up, to young or old ; 
But ever to himself he mutters, 

"Poor Harry Gill is very cold." 
Abed or up, by night or day, 

His teeth may chatter, chatter still: 
Now think, ye farmers all, I pray, 

Of Goody Blake and Harry Gill. Wordsworth. 



184 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

7. HII* VAX WINKLE. 

The honest man could contain himself no longer. He 
caught his daughter and her child in his arms. " / am 
your father!" cried he, "young Rip Van Winkle once — 
old Rip Van Winkle now ! — Does nobody know poor Rip 
Van Winkle ? " Irving. 

8. ENOCH ATIDEN. 

" Enoch, poor man, was cast away and lost." 
He, shaking his gray head pathetically, 
Eepeated muttering, " Cast away and lost ; " 
Again in deeper inward whispers, "Lost!" 

Tenktbov. 
0. little giietohen. 
They lifted her up tearfully, they shuddered as they 

said, 
" It was a bitter, bitter night ! the child is frozen dead." 
The angels sang their greeting for one more redeemed 

from sin. 
Men said, "It was a bitter night; would no one let her 
in ? " 

Kecapitulation of Stress. 

1. The radical is the stress of animation, of earnest- 
ness, of assertion, of command, and of passion. 

2. The median is the stress of sentiment, of pathos 
and tenderness, of awe, reverence, sublimity, and enthu- 
siasm, 

3. Vanishing stress is the stress of very strong em- 
phasis, of contempt and disdain, of willfulness, petulance, 
and impatience. 

4. Thorough stress is (lie stress of impassioned oratory, 
and intense dramatic expression. 

5. The compound is the stress of the circumflex inflec- 
tion, of irony, sarcasm, contempt, and astonishment. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 185 

6. The tremor is the stress of feebleness, of childishness, 
and of grief 

Stress Drill. 

1. Radical. Attention, all. 

2. Median. All in one mighty sepulcher. 

3. Vanishing. All, all is lost! All lost! 

4. Thorough. Come one, come all ! 

5. Compound-. What all, are they all lost ? 

6. Intermittent. All my sons are c/cac?, all, all dead! 

Examples of Stress. 

KADICAL. 

Hear the loud alarum bells — brazen bells ! 

MEDIAN. 

Hear the mellow wedding bells — golden bells ! 

VANISHING. 

I '11 have my bond, and therefore speak no more. 

THOROUGH. 

Awake ! Arise ! or be forever fallen. 

COMPOUND. 

Gone to be married ! gone to svjear a peace ! 

INTERMITTENT. 

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man 

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door. 



186 SCHOOL ELOCUTION, 



CHAPTEE III. 

MOVEMENT. 



Introductory. 



1. The three leading divisions of movement, rate, or 
time, in reading, are slow, moderate, and fast. These 
distinctions are, for convenience, subdivided as follows : 
1. Moderate (corresponding, in music, to andante). 2. 
Fast (allegro). 3. Very fast (presto). 4. Slow (adagio). 
5. Very slow (largo). 

2. Different kinds of prose and verse require differ- 
ent rates of movement, but the general principle that 
governs all reading or speaking may be stated as fol- 
lows : Bead slowly enough for your hearers to compre- 
hend, fully and easily, what is rend. 

3. Good extemporaneous speakers generally have a slow 
and deliberate utterance, because they take time to think 
what to say. They, also, give their hearers time to think 
of what is said by the speaker. 

4. The habit of slow reading may be acquired, not 
by a drawling, hesitating utterance, but by observing 
rhetorical and grammatical pauses; by prolonging vocal 
and liquid sounds-, and by taking time to think of the 
meaning of what is read. 

5. The general principles governing movement are 
well expressed in the following extract from Russell's 
"American School Header :" "Everything tender, or sol- 
emn, plaintive, or grave, should be read with great 
moderation. Everything humorous or sprightly, every- 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 187 

tiling witty or amusing, should be read in a brisk and 
lively manner. 

6. " Narration should be generally equable and flowing ; 
vehemence, firm and accelerated; anger and joy, rapid; 
whereas dignity, authority, sublimity, reverence, and awe 
should, along with deeper tone, assume a slower movement. 

7. " The movement should, in every instance, be adapted 
to the sense, and free from all hurry on the one hand, 
or drawling on the other. 

8. " The pausing, too, should be carefully proportioned 
to the movement or rate of the voice ; and no change 
of movement from slow to fast, or the reverse, should 
take place in any clause, unless a change of emotion is 
implied in the language of the piece." 

Movement Drill. 

1. Eepeat, three times, the long vocals, a, e, I, o, u : 
(1) With low pitch and very slow movement. (2) "With 
middle pitch and slow movement. (3) With moderate 
movement. (4) With fast movement. (5) With very 
fast movement. 

2. Count from one to twenty : (1) With slow move- 
ment. (2) With moderate movement. (3) With fast 
movement. 

3. Eepeat, with moderate movement — 

The day is done, and the darkness 
Falls from the wings of night 

As a feather is wafted downwards 
From an eagle in his flight. 

I. Moderate Movement. 

Moderate movement is the characteristic rate in the 
reading of didactic, descriptive, or narrative composition, 
and of the poetry of sentiment. 



188 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. ENGLISH SCENERY. 

The great charm, however, of English scenery, is the 
moral feeling that seems to pervade it. It is associated 
in the mind with ideas of order, of quiet, of sober, well- 
established principles, of hoary usage, and reverend custom. 
Everything seems to be the growth of ages of regular 
and peaceful existence. The neighboring village, with 
its venerable cottages, its public green, sheltered by trees, 
under which the forefathers of the present race have 
sported; the antique family mansion, standing apart in 
some little rural domain, but looking down with a pro- 
tecting air on the surrounding scene; all these common 
features of English landscape evince a calm and settled 
security, a hereditary transmission of home-bred virtues 
and local attachments, that speak deeply and touehingly 
for the moral character of the nation. irvi>-g. 

2. THE SEASONS IN SWEDEN. 

I must not forget the suddenly changing seasons of 
the northern clime. There is no lonn: and limzerino; 
spring unfolding leaf and blossom one by one; no long 
and lingering autumn, pompous with many-colored leaves 
and the glow of Indian summers. But winter and sum- 
mer are wonderful, and pass into each other. The quail 
has hardly ceased piping in the com, when vAnter, from 
the folds of trailing clouds, sows broadcast over the 
land, snow, icicles, and rattling had. 

The days wane apace. Ere long the sun hardly rises 
above the horizon, or does not rise at all. The moon 
and the stars shine through the day; only, at noon, they 
are pale and wan, and in the southern sky a red, fiery 
glow, as of sunset, burns along the horizon, and then 
goes but. And pleasantly, under the silver moon, and 
under the silent, solemn stars, ring the steel shoes of the 
skaters on the frozen sea, and voices, and the sound of 

OellS. Longfellow. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 189 

II. Fast Movement. 

Fast, or quick, movement, is the characteristic rate in 
the expression of mirth, fun, humor, gladness, joy, and 
haste. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. PAUL p.evere's hide. 

A hurry of hoofs in a village street, 

A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, 

And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark 

Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fle'et : 

That was all ! And yet, through the gloom and the light, 

The fate of a nation was ruling that night ; 

And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, 

Kindled the land into flame with its heat. lo.xgfellow. 

2. l'allegro. 
Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee 
Jest and youthful Jollity, 
Qidps, and cranks, and wanton tulles, 
Nods, and becks, and wreatheVl smiles 
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, 
And love to live in dimple sleek; 
Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 
And Laughter holding botli his sides. 
Come, and trip it as ye go 
On the light fantastic toe ; 
And in thy right hand lead with thee 
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty. Milton. 

3. ONCE MOKE. 

" Will I come ? " That is pleasant ! I beg to inquire 
If the gun that I carry has ever missed fire ? 
And which was the muster-roll — mention but one — 
That missed your old comrade who carries the gun ! 

You see me as always, my hand on the lock, 
The cap on the nipple, the hammer full cock. 



190 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

It is rusty, some tell me ; I heed not the scoff; 
It is battered and bruised, but it always goes off I 
"Is it loaded?" I'll bet you! What does rit it hold ? 
Hammed full to the muzzle with memories untold ; 
Why, it scares me to fire, lest the pieces should fly 
Like the cannons that burst on the Fourth of July ! 

HOLilES. 
4. RHYME OF THE HAIL. 

Singing through the forests, 

Battling over ridges, 
Shooting under arches, 

Eumbling over bridges ; 
Whizzing through the mountains, 

Buzzing o'er the vale, 
Bless me ! this is pleasant, 

Biding on the rail! Saxe . 

5. TUE MAY QUEEN. 

You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother 

dear ; 
To-morrow '11 be the happiest time of all the glad Xew 

Year ; 
Of all the glad New Year, mother, the maddest, merriest 

day ; 
For I 'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I 'm to be 

Queen o' the May. tenmtsok. 

G. THE MESSAGE. 

The muster-place is Lanrick mead ; 
Sliced forth the signal! Norman, speed! 
The summons dread brooks no delay. 
Stretch to the race — away! away! bcott. 

7. THE SUMMONS. 

Come as the winds come, when forests are rended : 
Come as the waves come, when navies are stranded. 
Faster come, faster come, faster and faster: 
Chief, vassal, page, and groom, tenant and master. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 191 

Fast they come, fast they come ; see how they gather ! 
Wide waves the eagle plume, blended with heather. 
Cast your plaids, draw your blades, forward each man set ; 
Pibroch of Donuil Dim, knell for the onset S Sc0TT . 

8. THE SMILING LISTENEK. 

Precisely. I see it. You all want to say 

That a tear is too sad and a smile is too gay ; 

You could stand a faint smile, you could manage a sigh, 

But you value your ribs, and you do n't want to cry. > 

It's awful to think of — how year after year 
With his piece in his pocket he waits for you here ; 
Xo matter who 's missing, there always is one 
To lug out his manuscript, sure as a gun. 

III. Very Fast Movement. 

Very fast movement is expressive of hurry, alarm, 
confusion, flight, ecstatic joy. and ungovernable rage 
and fury. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. MAZEPPA. 

Away ! — away ! — and on we dash ! — 
Torrents less rapid and less rash. 

Aiccty, avsaij, my steed and I, 
Upon the pinions of the v:\ncl, 
All human dwellings left behind ; 

We sped like meteors through the shy, 
When with its crackling sound the night 
Is chequered with the northern light. bykox. 



Sisters ! hence, with spurs of speed ! 

Each her thundering falchion wield; 
Each bestride her sable steed; 

Hurry! hurry to the field. 



192 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

3. FLIGHT. 

Forth from the pass in tumult driven, 
Like chaff before the wind of heaven, 

The archery appear; 
For life ! for life ! their flight they ply ; 
While shrink, and shout, and battle-cry, 
And plaids and bonnets waving high, 
And broadswords flashing to the sky, 

Are maddening in the rear. S corr. 

4. GOOD NEWS. 

I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he ; 

1 galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all tlnee; 

" Good speed ! " cried the watch as the gate-bolts undrew ; 

" Speed ! " echoed the wall to us galloping through. 

Behind shut the postern; the lights sank to rest, 

And into the midnight we galloped abreast. 

Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace, 
N^ck by ne'ek, stride by stride, never changing our place ; 
I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, 
Then shortened each stirrup and set the pique right, 
Eebuckled the che'ek-strap, chained slacker the bit, 
Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit. bhowniko. 

5. HOW THE OLD HORSE WON' THE BET. 

" Bring forth the horse!" Alas! he showed 

Not like the one Mazeppa rode ; 

Scant-maned, sharp-backed, and shaky-kneed, 

The wreck of what was once a steed ; 

Lips thin, eyes hollow, stiff in joints, 

Yet not without his knowing points. 

"Gb!" — Through his ear the summons stung, 

As if a battle- trump had rung ; 

The slumbering instincts long unstirred 

Start at the old familiar word ; 

It thrills like flame through every limb — 

What mean his twenty years to him ? 






SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 193 

The savage blow his rider dealt 

Fell on bis bollow flanks unfelt ; 

The spur that pricked his staring bide 

Unheeded tore bis bleeding side; 

Alike to bim are spur and rein — 

He steps a five-year-old again ! 

Before tbe quarter-pole was passed, 

Old Hiram said, " He 's going fast." 

Long ere the quarter was a half, 

The chuckling crowd bad ceased to laugh; 

Tighter his frightened jockey clung 

As in a mighty stride be swung, 

The gravel flying in bis track, 

His neck stretched out, bis ears laid back, 

His tail extended all the while 

Behind bim like a rat-tail file ! 

Off went a shoe — away it spun, 

Shot like a bullet from a gun ; 

Tbe quaking jockey shapes a prayer 

From scraps of oaths he used to swear ; 

He drops bis whip, be drops bis rein, 

He clutches fiercely for a mane ; 

He'll lose his bold — he sways and reels — 

He '11 slide beneath those trampling heels ! 

But like the sable steed that bore 

Tbe spectral lover cf Lenore, 

His nostrils snorting foam and fire, 

No stretch bis bony limbs can tire; 

And now tbe stand be rushes by, 

And " Stop bim ! stop bim ! " is the cr\ T , 

Stand back ! lie 's only just begun — 

He's having out three heats in one! 

Now for the finish ! At the turn, 

The old horse — all the rest astern — 

Comes swinging in, with easy trot; 

By Jove ! lie 's distanced all the lot ! holmes. 

13 



194 SCHOOL ELOCUTION 



IV. Slow Movement. 



Slow movement prevails in the utterance of praise 
and adoration, and in all expression when the mind is 
under the influence of meditation, grief, melancholy, 
grandeur, sublimity, vastness, or power. It is the 
characteristic rate of thoughtful and powerful oratory. 
In slow movement, the rhetorical pauses are long, and 
the voice dwells on the liquid and the long vowel 
sounds. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. ASTRONOMY. 

Generation after generation has rolled aica-y, age after 
age has swept silently by; but each has swelled, by its 
contributions, the stream of discovery. Mysterious 
movements have been unraveled ; mighty Idivs have been 
revealed ; ponderous drbs have been weighed ; one barrier 
after another has given way to the force of intellect ; 
until the mind, majestic in its strength, has mounted, 
ste'p by stdp, up the rock}- height of its self-built 
pyramid, from whose star-crowned summit it looks out 
upon the grandeur of the universe self-clothed with the 

prescience of a Gdd. Mitchell. 

2. THE RAVEN. 

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December, 
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon 

the floor : 
Eagerly I wished the morrow ; — vainly I had sought to 

borrow 
From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost 

Lenore — 
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name 

Lenore — 

Nameless here for evermore. 

Toe. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



195 



3. THE ANCIENT MARINER, 

Alone, alone, all, all alone, 

Alone on the wide, wide sea ; 
And never a saint took pity on 

My soul in agony. 

The many men, so beautiful ) 

And they all dead did lie ! 
And a thousand thousand slimy things 

Lived on — and so did I. 

I closed my lids and kept them close, 

Till the balls like pulses beat ; 
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky 
Lay like a load on my weary eye, 

And the dead were at my feet. Coleridge. 

4. THE HOUR OF DEATH. 

Leaves have their time to fall, 
And flowers to wither at the north-wind's breath, 

And stars to set — but all, 
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Death ! 

Mrs. Hemans. 
5. TO A WATERFOWL. 

Whither, midst falling dew, 

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, 
Far through their rosy depths dost thou pursue 

Thy solitary way ? 

Vainly the fowler's eye 

Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, 
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, 

Thy figure floats along. bryast. 

V. Very Slow Movement. 

Very slow movement prevails in the expression of deep 
emotions, such as awe, reverence, horror, melancholy, and 
grief. 






196 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Iii this movement the rhetorical and grammatical 
pauses are very long, and the vowel and liquid sounds 
are dwelt upon and prolonged. 

The prevailing inflection in this movement is the 
monotone. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Air, earth, and sea resound his praise abroad. 

2. Boll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll. 

3. Old ocean's gray and melancholy waste. 

4. Childless and crownless in her voiceless woe. 

5. It thunders ! Sons of dust, in reverence bow. 

6. Unto Thee I lift up mine eyes, Thou that dwell- 
est in the heavens. 

7. Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Death ! 

8. Now o'er the one half world 

Nature seems dead ; and wicked dreams abuse 

The curtained sleeper. 

Thou sure and firm-set earth, 

Hear not my steps which way they walk, for fear 

The very stones prate of my whereabouts, 

And take the present horror from the time 

Which now suits with it. 

9. CARDINAL WOLSET. 

Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness. 
This is the state of man ; to-day he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, 
And bears his blushing lienors thick upon him; 
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost; 
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
His greatness is a-ripening — nips his root, 
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured, 
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, 
This many summers in a sea of glory — 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 197 

But far beyond my depth; my high-blown pride 
At length broke under me ; and now has left me, 
Weary, and old with service, to the mercy 
Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me. 

Shakespeare. 
10. DIIEAM OF DARKNESS. 

The crowd was famished by degrees. But two 

Of an enormous city did survive, 

And they were enemies. They met beside 

The dying embers of an altar-place, 

Where had been heaped a mass of holy things 

For an unholy usage. They raked up, 

And, shivering, scraped with their cold, skeleton hands, 

The feeble ashes; and their feeble breath 

Blew for a little life, and made a flame, 

Which was a mockery. Then they lifted 

Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld 

Each other's aspects — saw, and shrieked, and died ; 

Even of their mutual hideousness they died, 

Unknowing who he was, upon w r hose brow 

Famine had written Fiend. Byron 

11. HIAWATHA. 

O the long and dreary Winter ! 
the cold and cruel Winter ! 
Ever thicker, thicker, thicker 
Froze the ice on lake and river; 
Ever deeper, deeper, deeper 
Fell the snow o'er all the landscape, 
Fell the covering snow, and drifted 



Through the forest, round the village. 



Longfellow. 






Examples of Movement. 

VERY SLOW. 

Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness. 



198 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

SLOW. 

Alone, alone, all, all alone. 

MODERATE. 

There was a sound of revelry by night. 

FAST. 

Come and trip it as ye go 
On the light fantastic toe. 

VERY FAST. 

Hurry ! hurry to the field ! 

Require each pujril to make out and read in the class a similar set 
of quoted illustrations. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 199 

CHAPTER IV. 

PITCH OF VOICE. 



I. Introductory. 



1. Pitch, or key, denotes the highness or lowness of 
the voice in tone. The range of the voice from the 
lowest to the highest tone is called its compass. 

2. The compass of the voice among readers corre- 
sponds, in some degree, to the tenor, soprano, contralto, 
and bass, among singers; but every voice has its own 
relatively low, middle, and high tones. 

3. For every one, the middle pitch is that tone to 
which the voice inclines in conversation, or in unim- 
passioned reading. 

4. The three main divisions of pitch are the low, the 
middle, and the high; but these, for convenience, are 
subdivided into very low, low, middle, high, and very 
high. 

5. The general key in which a selection should be read 
is determined by the general sentiment or character of 
the piece. 

6. In order to avoid monotony, there should be some 
slight variation of pitch at the beginning of each suc- 
cessive paragraph that marks a new topic of discourse, 
or a change of idea. 

7. Low pitch is the tone expressive of serious thought, 
of awe, of reverence,, of adoration, of horror, and of 
despair. 

8. Middle pitch is the tone of conversation, and of 
unimpassioned narrative or descriptive reading. 



200 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

9. High pitch is the tone of gayety, joy, and gladness ; 
of courage and exultation; and of shouting and calling. 

10. Of the importance of drill exercises in pitch, Prof. 
Monroe says : " One of the commonest faults in school 
reading, and in the delivery of many public speakers, 
is a dull monotony of tone. This sameness is still more 
disagreeable to the ear when the voice is kept strained 
upon a high key. Not less unpleasant is an incessant 
repetition of the same cant or sing-song. Elocutionary 
rules will do little or nothing toward removing these 
faults. Faithful drill is needed, under the guidance of 
<K)od taste and a correct musical ear. To this must be 

o 

added an appreciation of the sentiment of the piece at 
the moment of utterance. 

11. "When the organs have been trained to freedom 
and facility in all degrees of the musical scale, the 
pupil will find it easy to modulate his voice in reading. 
Vowels, words, and sentences should be practiced witli 
high, middle, and low pitch. Having these tones at his 
command, the expressive reader will vary the pitch with 
every shade of thought or emotion, so that a foreigner 
who did not understand a word might listen with pleas- 
ure to the play of intonation. Next to sweetness of 
voice, a proper melody of delivery has the greatest 
charm to the hearer." 

II. Concert Drill on Pitch. 

1. Sing the scale, up and down: do, re, mi, fix. sol, 
lii, si, do. 

2. Sing the scale with the long vowel sounds, instead 
of note names : a, e, I, o, u, a, e, I. 

3. Sound, not sing, the long vowels, a, e, I, 5, u, on 
the key of do ; of mi ; of sol ; of do. 

4. Sound the long vowels, a, e, I, 6, u : (1) With low 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 201 

pitch. (2) With middle pitch. (3) With high pitch. 
(4) With very high pitch. 

5. Count from one to twenty: (1) In middle pitch. 
(2) With low pitch. (3) With high pitch. 

G. Eepeat, five times, the word "all," beginning with 
very low pitch, and rising higher with each successive 
repetition. 

III. Faults in Pitch. 

1. The most common fault in school reading is the 
high pitch known as the conventional "school tone," 
w r hich grates on the ear like the filing of a saw. It 
arises from an effort to read in a loud tone, and from 
a habit of reading without any regard to thought or 
feeling. This fault must be corrected by vocal drill on 
a low key. 

2. A common fault, particularly of girls, is that of 
reading with feeble force and low pitch. 

3. The failure to adapt the pitch to the sentiment or 
emotion of what is read. 

IV. Examples of the Middle Pitch. 

The middle pitch is the natural tone of ordinary con- 
versation. It is the appropriate key for the reading of 
unimpassioned narrative, descriptive, and didactic com- 
position. 

1. Give a boy address and accomplishments, and you 
give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he 
goes. 

2. Wisdom is better than riches. 

3. Good morning, Mr. Brown. How do you do this 
morning ? 

4 For all a rhetorician's rules 

Teach nothing but to name his tools. 



202 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

5. Marley was dead, to begin with ; there is no doubt 
whatever about that. Old Marley was as dead as a 
door-nail. 

6. CONCORD RIVER. 

We stand now on the river's brink. It may well be 
called the Concord — the river of peace and quietness, — 
for it is certainly the most unexcitable and sluggish stream 
that ever loitered imperceptibly towards its eternity, the 
sea. Positively, I had lived three weeks beside it, be- 
fore it grew quite clear to my perception which way 
the current flowed. It never has a vivacious aspect, 
except when a north-western breeze is vexing its sur- 
face, on a sunshiny day. 

From the incurable indolence of its nature, the stream 
is happily incapable of becoming the slave of human 
ingenuity, as is the fate of so many a wild, free, moun- 
tain torrent. While all things else are compelled to 
subserve some useful purpose, it idles its sluggish life 
away in lazy liberty, without turning a solitary spindle, 
or affording even water-power enough to grind the corn 

that grows upon its banks. Hawthorn* 

7. WOUTER VAX TWILLER. 

This, by the way, is a casual remark, which I would 
not, for the universe, have it thought I apply to Gov- 
ernor Van Twiller. It is true he was a man shut up 
within himself, like an oyster, and rarely spoke excr}'t 
in monosyllables ; but then it was allowed he seldom 
said a foolish thing. So invincible was his gravity that 
he was never known to laugh, or even to smile, through 
the whole course of a long and prosperous life. Nay, 
if a joke were uttered in his presence, that set light- 
minded hearers in a roar, it was observed to throw him 
into a state of perplexity. Sometimes he would deign 
to inquire into the matter, and when, after much ex- 
planation, the joke was made as plain as a pike-staflf 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 203 

lie would continue to smoke his pipe in silence, and at 
length, knocking out the ashes, would exclaim, "Well, 
I see nothing in all that to laugh about." Irving. 

Y. Examples of High Pitch. 

Joy, mirth, and gayety incline the voice to pure tone 
and high pitch. Calling to persons at a distance in- 
clines the voice to high pitch and pure tone. Anger, 
courage, boldness, and exultation incline the voice to 
high pitch and loud force. 

1. Sound drums and trumpets, boldly and cheerfully. 

2. Eing joyous chords ! ring out again 
A swifter still and a wilder strain. 

3. And dar'st thou, then, 

To beard the lion in his den, 
The Douglas in his hall ? 

4. But thou, Hope, with eyes so fair, 
What was thy delighted measure ? 

5. AXGER. 

Call me their traitor I — Thou injurious tribune ! 
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, 
In thine hands clutched as many millions, in 
Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say 
Thou Rest, unto thee, with a voice as free 

As I do pray the gods. From Coriolanus. 

6. VICTORY. 

They strike ! hurrah ! the foe has surrendered ! 
Shout ! shout ! my warrior boy, 
And wave your cap, and clap your hands for joy. 
Cheer answer cheer, and bear the cheer about. 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! for the fiery fort is ours. 

Victory ! victory ! victory ! - 



204 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

7. CALLING. 

I 'm with you once again ! — I call to you 
With all my voice, I hold my hands to you, 
To show they still are free. I rush to you 
As though I could embrace you. 

Tell's Address to tlie Mountains. 
8. CALLING THE COWS. 

When over the hill the farm-boy goes, 
Cheerily calling, 
" Cd boss ! cd boss ! cd ! cd ! cd ! " 
Farther, farther, over the hill, 
Faintly calling, calling still, 

" Cd boss ! cd boss ! cd ! cd ! CO ! " Trowbridge. 
9. the watchman's call. 
Ho ! watchman, ho ! 

Twelve is the clock ! 
God keep our town 
From fire and brand 
And hostile hand ! 
Twelve is the clock ! 

10. THE SILVER BELLS. 

Hear tire sledges with the bells — 
Silver bells 
What a world of merriment their melody foretells ! 
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, 

In the icy air of night! 
While the stars that overspriukle 
All the heavens, seemed to twinkle 

With a crystalline delight; 
Keeping time, time, time, 
In a sort of Runic rhyme, 
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells 
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, 
Bells, bells, bells— 
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. r , u . 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 205 

11. EXULTATION. 

Joy ! joy forever ! my task is done ; 

The gates are passed, and heaven is won. moore. 

12. COMMAND AND SHOUTING. 

Advance yonr standards, draw your willing swords! 
Sound drums and trumpets, boldly and cheerfully ! 
God, and Saint George ! Richmond and victory ! 

13. THE CHARCOAL MAN. 

Though rudely blows the wintry blast, 
And sifting snows fall white and fast, 
Mark Haley drives along the street, 
Perched high upon his wagon-seat ; 
His somber face the storm defies, 
And thus from morn till eve he cries: — 

" Char co ! chared I " 
While echo faint and far replies : — 

"Hark, Of hark, 0!" 
" Chared ! " — " Hark, I " — Such cheery sounds 
Attend him on his daily rounds. Trowbridge. 

14. THE LOST HEIR. 

One day, as I was going by 
That part of Holborn christened High, 
I heard a loud and sudden cry 
That chilled my very blood ; 
"0 Lord! oh, dear, my heart will break, I shall go stick 

stark staring wild ! 
Has ever a one seen anything about the streets like a 

crying, lost-looking child ? 
The last time as ever I see him, poor thing, was with 

my own blessed motherly eyes, 
Sitting as good as gold in the gutter, a -playing at 

making little dirt pies. 
Billy — where are you, Billy ? — I 'm as hoarse as a crow, 
with screaming for ye, you young sorrow ! 



206 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Aud sha' n't Lave half a voice, no more I sha' n't, fur 

crying fresh herrings to-morrow. 
Billy — where are you, Billy, I say ? come Billy, come 

home to your best of mothers ! 
I 'm scared when I think of them cabroleys, they drive 

so, they'd run over their own sisters and brothers. 
Or may be he's stole by some cliimbly-sweeping wretch, 

to stick fast in narrow flues and what not, 
Aud be poked up behind with a picked pointed pole, when 

the soot has ketched, and the chimbly's red hot. 
Oh, I'd give the whole wide world, if the world was 

mine, to clap my two longin' eyes on his face ; 
For he 's my darlin' of darlin's, and if he do n't soon come 

back, you'll see me drop stone-dead on the place. 
I only wish I'd got him safe in these two motherly 

arms, and would n't I hug him and kiss him ! 
Lawk ! I never knew what a precious he was — but a 

child do n't feel like a child till you miss him. 
Why, there he is ! Punch and Judy hunting, the young 

wretch ; it 's that Billy as sartin as sin ! 
But let me get him home, with a good grip of his hair, 

and I'm blest if he shall have a whole bone in his 

Skin ! " Hood. 

15. EXTRACTS FROM HOOD'S " TALE OF A TRUMPET." 

Of all old women hard of hearing, 

The deafest, sure, was Dame Eleanor Spearing! 

On her head, it is true, 

Two flaps there grew, 
That served for a pair of gold rings to go through; 
But for any purpose of ears in a parley, 
They heard no more than ears of barley. 

However, in the peddler came, 

And the moment he met the eyes of the dame, 

Popped a trumpet into her ear : — 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 207 

" There, ma'am ! try it ! 

You needn't biiy it — 
The last new patent — and nothing comes nigh it, 
For affording the deaf, at little expense, 
The sense of hearing, and hearing of sense ! 
A real blessing — and no mistake, 
Invented for poor humanity's sake; 
I wouldn't tell a lie, I wouldn't, 

But my trumpets have heard what Solomon's couldn't; 
Only a guinea — and can't take less." 
^That's very clear," says Dame Eleanor S.) 

"There was Mrs. F., 

So very ddaf, 
That she might have worn a percussion-cdp, 
And been knocked on the head without hearing it snap. 
Well, I sold her a horn, and the very next day 
She heard from her husband at Botany Bay ! 
Come — speak your mind — it's 'No or Yes.'" 
(" I've half a mind," said Dame Eleanor S.) 

« Try it— buy it ! 

Buy it — try it ! 
The last new patent, and nothing comes nigh it." 
In short, the peddler so bese't her — 
Lord Bacon couldn't have gammoned her be'tter — 
With flatteries plump and indirect, 
And plied his tongue with such effect — 
A tongue that could almost have buttered a crumpet — 
The deaf old woman bought the trumpet. 

16. CONVERSATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 

[Each supposes the other to be very deaf, the pitch at times running 
into screaming, ] 

Jones. (Speaking shrill and loud.) Miss, will you ac- 
cept these flowers ? I plucked them from their slumber 
on the hill. 

Pru. (In an equally high voice.) Really sir, I — I — 



208 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Jones. {Aside) She hesitates. It must be that she 
does not hear me. {Increasing Ids tone) Miss, will you 
accept these flowers — flowers ? I plucked them sleep- 
ing on the hill — hill. 

Pru. {Also increasing her tone.) Certainly, Mr. Jones. 
They are beautiful — beau-u-tiful. 

Jones. {Aside.) How she screams in my ear. (Aloud) 
Yes, I plucked them from their slumber — slumber, on 
the hill— hill. 

Pru. {Aside.) Poor man, what an effort it seems for 
him to speak. {Aloud) I perceive you are poetical. 
Are you fond of poetry ? {Aside.) He hesitates. I 
must speak louder. (In a scream) Poetry — poetry — 
POETEY ! 

Jones. {Aside.) Bless me, the woman would wake the 
dead ! (Aloud) Yes, Miss, I ad-o-r-e it. 

Snob. Glorious ! glorious ! I wonder how loud they 
can scream. Oh, vengeance, thou art sweet ! 

Pru. Can you repeat some poetry — poetry ? 

Jones. I only know one poem. It is this — 

You 'd scarce expect one of my age — Age, 
To speak in public on the stage — STAGE. 

Pru. Bravo — bravo ! 

Jones. Thank you ! Thank 



Pru. Mercy on us ! Do you think I 'm deaf, sir ? 

Jones. And do you fancy me deaf, Miss ? (Natural 
tone) 

Pru. Are you not, sir ? You surprise me ! 

Jones. No, Miss. I was led to believe that you were 
deaf. Snobbleton told me so. 

Pru. Snobbleton ! Why, he told me that you were 
deaf. 

Jones. Confound the fellow ! he has been making 

game Of US. Beadle's Dime Speaker. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 209 

VI. Examples of Low Pitch. 

Low pitch is the characteristic key of the voice when 
the mind is under the influence of serious, grave, and 
impressive thoughts ; and very low pitch is the appro- 
priate key for the expression of reverence, adoration, 
horror, and despair. 

1. FKOM THE "RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER." 

An orphan's curse would drag to hell 

A spirit from on high ; 
But oh ! more horrible than that 

Is the curse in a dead man's eye ! 
Seven days, seven nights I saw that curse, 

And yet I could not die. 

2. FROM THE "RAVEN." 

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, 

wonderin :, fearing, 
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to 

dream before ; 
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave 

no token, 
And the only word there spoken was the whispered 

word " Lenore ! " 
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the 

word " Lenore ! " 

Merely this, and nothing more. 

3. LAT7S DEO. 

Let us kneel ; 

God's own voice is in that peal, 
And this spot is holy ground. 

Lord, forgive us ! What are we, 

That our eyes this giory see, 
That our ears have heard the sound ! whittier. 

14 



210 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

4. FROM THE PSALMS. 

He bowed the heavens, also, and came down ; and 
darkness was under his feet; and he rode upon a cherub, 
and did fly; and he was seen upon the wings of the 
wind; and lie made darkness pavilions round about him, 
dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies. 

5. THE CHANDOS PICTURE. 

The bell far off beats midnight ; in the dark 

The sounds have lost their way, and wander slowly 
Through the dead air ; beside me things cry, " Hark ! " 
And whisper words unholy. edu-ard tollcck. 

6. THE IRON CELLS. 

Hear the tolling of the bells — 
Iron bells ! 
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels ! 
In the silence of the night, 
How we shiver with affright 
At the melancholy menace of their tone ! 
For every sound that floats 
From the rust within their throats 

Is a groan. 
And the people — ah, the people — 
They that dwell up in the steeple, 

All alone ! 
And who tolling, tolling, tolling, 

In that muffled monotone, 
Feel a glory in so rolling 

On the human heart a stone ; 
They are neither man nor woman — 
They are neither brute nor human — 

They are ghouls ; 
And their king it is who tolls — 
And he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls, 
A peean from the bells ! 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



211 



And his merry bosom swells 
With the paean of the "bells ! 
And he dances and he yells; 
Keeping time, time, time, 
In a sort of Runic rhyme, 
To the paean of the bells — 

Of the bells S 
Keeping time, time, time, 
In a sort of Runic rhyme, 
To the throbbing of the bells — 

Of the bells, bells, bells — 
To the sobbing of the bells ; 
Keeping time, time, time, 

As he knells, knells, knells, 
In a happy Runic rhyme, 
To the rolling of the bells — 

Of the bells, bells, bells, 
To the tolling of the bells— 
Of the bells, "bells, bells, bells, 
Bells, bells, bells— 
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells ! 



Pot 



VII. Examples of Very Low Pitch. 

1. Concerning the application of very low pitch in 
reading and speaking, Prof. Russell remarks : " This low- 
est form of pitch is one of the most impressive means 
»f powerful natural effect, in the utterance of all deep 
md impressive emotions. The pervading and absorbing 
iffect of awe, amazement, horror, or any similar feeling, 
can never be produced without low pitch and deep suc- 
cessive notes ; and the depth and reality of such emotions 
are always in proportion to the depth of voice with which 
:hey are uttered. The grandest descriptions in the 'Par- 
tdise Lost,' and the profoundest meditations in the 
Night Thoughts,' become trivial in their effect on the 



212 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

ear, when read with the ineffectual expression insepara- 
ble from the pitch- of ordinary conversation or discourse. 

2. "The vocal deficiency which limits the range of 
expression to the middle and higher notes of the scale 
is not, by any means, the unavoidable and necessary 
fault of organization, as it is so generally supposed to 
be. Habit is in this, as in so many other things, the 
cause of defect. There is truth, no doubt, in the remark 
so often made in defense of a high and feeble voice, 
that it is natural to the individual, or that it is difficult 
for some readers to attain to depth of voice without 
incurring a false and forced style of utterance. But in 
most cases it is habit, not organization, that has made 
certain notes natural or unnatural — in other word-. 
familiar to the ear or the reverse. 

3. "The neglect of the lower notes of the scale, and, 
consequently, of the organic action by which they are 
produced, may render a deep-toned utterance less easy 
than it would otherwise be. But most teachers of elo- 
cution are, from day to day, witnesses to the fact that 
students, from the neglect of muscular action, and from 
all the other enfeebling causes involved in sedentary 
habits and intellectual application, sometimes commence 
a course of practice with a high-pitched, thin, and fem- 
inine voice, which seems at first incapable of expressing 
a grave or manly sentiment, and, in some instances, 
appears to forbid the individual from ever attempting 
the utterance of a solemn thought, lest his treble tone 
should make the effect ridiculous ; but that a few weeks' 
practice of vocal exercise on bass notes and deep emo- 
tions, as embodied in rightly selected exercises, often 
enables such readers to acquire a round and deep-toned 
utterance, adequate to the fullest effects of impressive 
eloquence. 

4. "The exercise of singing bass, if cultivated as an 
habitual practice, has a great effect in imparting com- 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 213 

mand of deep-toned expression in reading and speaking. 
Reading and reciting passages from Milton and from 
Young, and particularly from the Book of Psalms, or 
from hymns of a deeply solemn character, are exercises 
of great value for securing the command of the lower 
notes of the voice." 

5. In the following exercises the movement is very 
slow, the pauses are very long, and the prevailing inflec- 
tion the grave monotone. 

o 

1. THE GRAVE. 

How frightful the grave! how deserted and drear! 
With the howls of the storm-wind, the creaks of the bier, 
And the white bones all clattering together! 

2. THE BELL OF THE ATLANTIC. 

Toll, toll, toll, thou bell by billows swung; 

And, night and day, thy warning words repeat with 

mournful tomme ; 
Toll for the queenly boat, wrecked on yon rocky shore ! 
Sea-weed is in her palace walls ; she rides the surge no 

more. Mrs. Sigourney. 

3. THE GHOST IX HAMLET. 

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word 

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, 

Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres, 

Thy knotted and combined locks to part, 

And each particular hair to stand on end, 

Like C[Ullls UpOll the fretful porcupine. Shakespeare. 

4. DARKNESS. 

The world was void : 
The populous | and the powerful | was a lump, 
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless ; 
A lump of death, a chaos of hard clay. 
The rivers, lakes, and ocean, all I stood | still, 



214 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

And nothing | stirred | within their silent depths. 

Ships, sailorless, lay rutting on the sea, 

And their masts | fell down | piecemeal; as they dropped | 

They slept on the abyss, without a surge — 

The waves | were dead ; the tides | were in their grave- ; 

The moon, their mistress, had expired before ; 

The winds | were withered | in the stagnant fur, 

And the clouds | perished : Darkness j had no need | 

Of aid | from them — she | was the Universe. byboh. 



VIII. Recapitulation of Pitch. 

1. Very low is the pitch of awe, of reverence, of solem- 
nity, of melancholy, horror, and despair. 

2. Low is the pitch of serious, grave, solemn, and im- 
pressive thoughts and feelings. 

3. Middle is the pitch of ordinary conversation, and 
of nnimpassioncd narrative, descriptive, or didactic com- 
position. 

4. High pitch is the pitch of courage, boldness, exulta- 
tion, wonder, and anger, and of shouting or catling. 

5. Very high is the pitch of rapturous emotion, of un- 
controllable passion, of terror, and pain. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 215 



CHAPTER V. 

» 



QUALITY OF VOICE. 



Introductory. 

1. Quality of voice relates to the kind of tone used 
in reading or speaking in order to express varied 
thoughts and emotions. 

2. The ever- varying intonations of a rich and culti- 
vated voice constitute one of the greatest charms of a 
good reader or speaker. 

3. " In poetical and impassioned language/' says Prof. 
Eussell, "tones are often the most prominent and the 
most important qualities of voice ; and to give these 
with propriety, force, and vividness, is the chief excel- 
lence of good reading or recitation. 

4. "The language of prose, being generally less 
imaginative and exciting, does not require the extent 
and power of tone used in poetry. But as true feeling- 
is, in both cases, the same in kind, though not in degree, 
and as no sentiment can be uttered naturally without 
the tone of its appropriate emotion, and no thought, 
indeed, can arise in the mind without a degree of emo- 
tion, a great importance is attached, even in the read- 
ing or speaking of prose composition, to those qualities 
of voice comprehended under the name of tones. 

5. " Without these, utterance would degenerate into 
a merely mechanical process of articulation. It is these 
that give impulse and vitality to thought, and which 
constitute the chief instruments of eloquence." 



21g school elocution. 

Kinds of Tone. 

The different qualities of tone may be classed as 
follows : 

1. Pure tone. 4. The Guttural. 

2. The Orotund. 5. The Falsetto. 

3. The Aspirated. G. The Semitone. 

Of these divisions, the pure tone and the orotund are 
the most important, because they are most used in 
reading. 

Faults in Quality. 

1. Perhaps the most common fault in school reading 
consists in using one uniform tone for all kinds of 
selections. 

2. This hard, thin, high, grating quality is appropri- 
ately termed the " school tone." 

3. The faulty habits of pupils in this respect are best 
corrected by requiring pupils to repeat in concert, after 
the teacher, short extracts which include great variations 
of quality. Many timid pupils are, at first, frightened 
at the sound of their own voices in any other tone than 
the conventional school tone. 

4. Another fault is the tendency to the nasal tone. 
This High, thin, sharp, disagreeable tone is produced by 
forcing the breath into the nose before it leaves the 
mouth, and this fault in reading is the result of not 
opening the mouth sufficiently in reading. It may be 
broken up by persistent drill on the open vowel .sound-, 
and by exercises that keep the voice down to a low pitch. 

I. Pure Tom:. 

1. Pure tone, or head tone, is a clear, smooth sound* 
so formed as to have a slight resonance in the head oi 
through the nasal passages. A good illustration o\' this 
quality is afforded by giving the sound of oo as in mo&n; 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 217 

prolonged for ten seconds, in a thin, clear, gentle vocal 
sound, on a moderately high pitch. 

2. Pare tone is used in all quiet, gentle, subdued 
forms of utterance ; in the expression of pathos and 
tenderness ; in ordinary conversation ; in unim passioned 
reading ; and in the prolonged tones of shouting or 
calling, when the voice, raised to a high pitch, flows in 
a thin, clear, penetrating volume. 

3. " The production of pure and full tone," says Prof. 
William Russell, "is the common ground on which elo- 
cution and vocal music unite, in elementary discipline. 
Both arts demand attention to appropriate healthful 
attitude, and to free, expansive, energetic action in the 
organs. 

4. " Both require erect posture, free opening of the 
chest, full and regular breathing, power of producing 
and sustaining any degree of volume of voice, and, along 
with these, the habit of vivid, distinct articulation. 

5. " Both equally forbid that imperfect and laborious 
breathing which mars the voice, exhausts the organs, 
and produces disease. Both tend to secure that healthy 
vigor of organ which makes vocal exercise, at once, a 
source of pleasure and a source of health." 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, 
While the landscape round it measures. 

2. that this lovely vale were mine ! 

3. then I see Queen Mab hath been with you ! 

4. Eejoice, ye men of Angiers ; ring your bells ; 

Open your gates to give the victors way. 

o. Joy ! joy forever ! my task is done ! 

G. Eing, joyous chords ! ring out again ! 

7. Hear the sledges with the bells — silver bells ! 



218 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

8. Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt 
whatever about that. 

9. Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for 
ability. 

10. Has there any old fellow got mixed with the hoys I 

11. Listen, my children, and you shall hear 
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. 

12. BUGLE SONG. 

hark, hear ! how thin and clear, 
And thinner, clearer, farther going; 
sweet and far, from cliff and scar, 
The horns of Elf-land faintly blowing! 
Blow; let us hear the purple glens replying; 
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying 



Tennyson. 



13. THE BELLS. 

Hear the sledges with the bells — 
Silver bells ! 
What a world of merriment their melody foretells ! 
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, 

In the icy air of night! 
While the stars that oversprinkle 
All the heavens seem to twinkle 

With a crystalline delight ; 
Keeping time, time, time, 
In a sort of Bunic rhyme, 
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells 
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, 
Bells, bells, bells ; 
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. Po* 

14. SONfi ON MAY MOUSING. 

Now the bright morning Star, day's harbinger, 
Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 219 

The flowery May, who from her green lap throws 
The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose. 
Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire 
Mirth, and youth, and warm desire: 
Woods and groves are of thy dressing, 
Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing. 
Thus we salute thee with our early song, 
And welcome thee, and wish thee long. milton. 

15. DRIFTING. 

The day so mild is Heaven's own child, 
With Earth and Ocean reconciled ; 
The airs I feel around me steal 
Are murmuring to the murmuring keel. 

Over the rail my hand I trail 

Within the shadow of the sail; 

A joy intense — the cooling sense — 

Glides down my drowsy indolence. it EAD . 

r 
16. TO A SKYLARK. 

Hail to thee, blithe spirit — 
Bird thou never wert — 
That from heaven, or near it, 
Pourest thy full heart 
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. 

Higher still and higher, 
From the earth thou springest; 
Like a cloud of fire 
The blue deep thou wingest, 
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. 

Shelley. 
17. PASSING AWAY. 

Was it the chime of a tiny bell 

That came so sweet to my dreaming ear, 

Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell, 

That he winds, on the beach, so mellow and clear, 



220 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

When the winds and the waves lie together asleep, 

And the Moon and the Fairy are watching the deep, 

She dispensing her silvery light, 

And he his notes as silvery quite, 

While the boatman listens and ships his oar, 

To catch the music that comes from the shore? 

Hark ! the notes on my ear that play, 

Are set to words: as they float, they say, 

"Passing away! passing away!" riERPo>rr. 

18. EYE OF ELECTION. 

From gold to gray, our mild, sweet day 
Of Indian summer fades too soon ; 

But tenderly, above the sea, 

Hangs, w 7 hite and calm, the hunter's moon. 

In its pale fire the village spire 

Shows like the zodiac's spectral lance ; 

The painted walls, whereon it falls, 

Transfigured stand in marble trance ! wmmsa. 

Concert Drill ox Pure Tone. 

1. Repeat, four times, the long vowels, a, e, I, o, u : 

(1) With moderate force, pure tone, and rising inflection. 

(2) With soft or gentle force. (3) With high pitch, pure 
tone, and sustained force. 

2. Count from one to fifty: (1) With quiet conversa- 
tional tone and rising inflection. (2) Falling inflection. 

(3) Circumflex inflection. (4) The monotone. 

3. Give the sound of long o, prolonged for ten sec- 
onds ; of ii ; of e. 

4. In high pitch, and thin, clear, pure tone, call as to 
persons at a distance: ho! ho! ho! 

II. The Orotund. 
1. The orotund is a round, deep, full, clear, resonant 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 221 

chest tone of voice. It has the flow and fullness of an 
organ-peal. It is the tone of emotion, excitement, and 
passion. 

2. The orotund has the smoothness of pure tone, but 
combines it with a much heavier volume of sound. 
The swelling tones of the orotund are the appropriate 
means of expressing reverence, awe, sublimity, grandeur, 
and strong feeling or passion. It prevails in oratorical 
declamation and in the reading of lyric or dramatic 
poetry. 

3. The prevailing stress of the orotund is the median, 
changing, however, under excitement, into the radical. 

4. In the orotund utterance, the breathing must be 
full and deep, to insure a good supply of breath ; the 
mouth must be well opened ; all the vocal organs must 
be called into full play ; and then, in harmony with 
strong emotions, the voice swells out like the blast of 
a bucde or the resonant swell of an oro;an. 

5. The three degrees of the orotund may be distin- 
guished as the effusive, the expulsive, and the explosive. 

Orotund Drill. 

1. Eepeat, four times, in monotone, the long vocals, 
a, e, I, o, "u. 

2. Inhale to the utmost capacity of the lungs and 
then give, with strong swell and round tone, the sound 
of long o, prolonged as long as the breath will allow. 

S. Eepeat four times the following vocals : e, a, ii, a, o, o. 

4. Lo ! the mighty sun looks forth ! 
Arm ! thou leader of the north. 

5. Awake ! Arise ! or be forever fallen ! 

6. Air, earth, and sea, resound his praise abroad. 

7. Eoll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll, 
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. 



222 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

8. Farewell, a long farewell to all nay greatness. 

9. Hail ! holy light, offspring of Heaven first-born ! 

10. Liberty ! freedom ! Tyranny is dead ! 

11. It thunders! sons of dust, in reverence bow! 

12. Hear the mellow wedding bells — golden bells. 

13. Hear the loud alarum bells — brazen bells. 

14. thou Eternal One! whose presence bright 
All space cloth occupy, all motion guide, 
Unchanged through time's all-devastating flight; 
Thou only God! There is no God beside! 

Examples of Effusive Orotund. 

1. THE ARSENAL. 

This is the Arsenal. From floor to c&ling, 
Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms; 

But from their silent pipes no anthem peuling, 
Startles the villages | with strange alarms. 

Ah! what a sound will rise — how wild and drear jf — 
When the death-angel touches those swift I'bjs! 

What loud lament | and dismal Miserere 
Will mingle | with their awful symphonies ! 

I he'ar even now | the infinite fierce chorus, 
The cries of agony, the endless groan, 

Which, through the ages | that have gone before us, 
In long reverberations | reach our own. Longfellow. 

2. THE OCEAN. 

The armaments | which thunderstrike the walls | 
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake, 

And monarchs | tremble in their cdjritals ; 
The oak leviathans, whose huge rib* make | 
Their clay creator | the vain title take | 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 223 

Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war — 

These | are thy toys, and, as the snowy flake, 
They melt into thy yeast of waves, which mar | 
Alike | the Armada's pride, or spoils of Trafalgar. 

Byron. 
3. HYMN TO MONT CLAXC. 

Ye kc-falls ! ye that from the mountain's brow | 
Adown enormous ravines slope amain — 
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, 
And stopped at 6nce amid their maddest plunge ! 
Motionless torrents ! silent cataracts ! 
Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven \ 
Beneath the keen full moon ? Who bade the sun | 
Clothe you with rainbows ? Who, with living flowers 
Of loveliest blue, spread ghrlands at your feet ? — 
God ! let the torrents like a shout of nations \ 
Answer ! and let the ke-plains echo : God I 
God ! sing, ye meadow-streams, with gladsome voice ! 
Ye ^n?ic-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds ! 
And they too have a voice, yon piles of snow, 
And in their perilous fall | shall thunder : God ! 

Coleridge. 
4. THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. 

Build thee more stcctely mansions, my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll ! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea ! 

Holmes. 
5. FROM THE PSALMS. 

Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the 
heavens; praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all 
Ins angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, 
sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise 



224 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

him, ye heavens of heavens, and } r e waters that be abbvi 
the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lbrd: 

for he commanded, and they were created. lie hath 
also established them for ever and ever : he hath made a 
decree which shall not pass. Praise the Lord from the 
earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: fire, and hail; snow, 
and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling his wbrd: mbuntains, 
and all Mils; fruitful trees, and all cedars : beasts, and 
all cattle; creeping things, and flying fbwl : kings of the 
earth, and cdl people : princes, and all judges of the 
earth: botli young men and maidens; old men and 
children. Let them praise the name of the Lord : for Ms 
name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth 
and heaven. 

G. EVE OF ELECTION. 

Our hearts qrow cold, we lightly hold 
A right which brave' men died to gain ; 

The stake, the cord, the ax, the sword, 
Grim nurses at its birth of pain. 

The shadow rend, and o'er us beud, 

martyrs, with your crowns and palms ! 

Breathe through these throngs, your battle-songs, 
Your scaffold prayers and dungeon psalms ! 

w hit-tier. 

Examples of Expulsive Orotund. 

These examples are to be rendered with a stronger 
swell than those under the head of effusive orotund. 

1. LAXJS DEO. 

It is dbne ! 
Clang of bell and roar of gun 

Send the tidings up and dbwn. 
How the belfries rdck and reel, 
How the great guns, peal on pral, 

Fling the joy from town to town ! whittibb. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION, 225 

2. CHRISTMAS. 

Ring but, ye crystal spheres ! 
Once bless our human ears, 

If }^e have power to touch our senses so ; 
And let your silver chime 
Move in melodious time, 

And let the bass of heavens deep organ blow ; 
And with your ninefold harmony 
Make up full consort to the angelic symphony. 

Milton. 

3. THE OCEAN. 

Boll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean — roll ! 
Ten thousand fleets | sweep over thee in vain ; 
Man | marks the earth with ruin, — his control | 
Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain | 
The 'wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain J 
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own, 
When for a moment, like a drop of rain, 
He sinks into thy depths | with bubbling gr5an, 
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown. 

Byron. 

4. THE OUGAX. 

Suddenly the notes of the deep-laboring organ burst 
upon the ear, falling with doubled and redoubled inten- 
sity, and rolling, as it we're, huge billows of sound. 
How well do their volume and grandeur accord with 
this mighty building ! With what pomp do they swell 
through its vast vaults, and breathe their awful har- 
mony through these caves of death, and make the silent 
sdpulcher vocal ! And now they rise in triumph and 
acclamation, heaving higher and higher their accordant 
notes, and piling sound on sound. And now they panse, 
and the soft voices of the choir break out into sweet 
gushes of melody; they soar aloft, and warble along the 
rdof and seem to play about these lofty vaults like the 
pure airs of heaven. Again the pealing organ heaves 

15 



226 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

its thrilling thunders, compressing air into music, and 
rolling it forth upon the soul. What long-drawn ca- 
dences ! What solemn, sweeping concords! It grows 
more and more dense and powerful; it fills the vast 
pile, and seems to jar the very walls; the ear is stunnnl, 
the senses arc overwhelmed. And now it is winding up 
in full jubilee; it is rising from the earth to heaven; 
the very soul seems rapt away and floated upwards on 
this swelling tide of harmony. Irving. 

5. PERORATION OF WEBSTER'S PLYMOUTH HOCK ORATION. 

Advance, then, ye future generations I We would hail 
you, as you rise in your long succession, to fill the 
places which we now fill, and to taste the blessings of 
existence, where we are passing, and soon shall have 
passed, our own human duration. We bid you welcome 
to this pleasant land of the lathers. We bid you welcome 
to the healthful skies and the verdant fields of New Eng- 
land. We greet your accession to the great inherit 
which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the bless- 
ings of good government and religious liberty. We wel- 
come you to the treasures of science, and the delights 
of learning. We welcome you to the transcendent sweats 
of domestic life, to the happiness of kindred, and parents, 
and children. We welcome you to the immeasurable 
blessings of rational existence, the immortal hope of 
Christianity, and the light of everlasting Truth ! 

6. GOD IN NATURE. 

"God," sing ye meadow streams, with gladsome voice'. 
Ye pine groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds I 
Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost! 
Ye wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest ! 
Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain storm ! 
Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds! 
Ye signs and wonders of the elements! 
Utter-forth "God," and fill the hills with praise! 

From Coleridge's Hymn to Mont Blanc 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 227 

7. A NEW YEAR'S CHIME. 

Ho ! ye wardens of the bells, 

Ring ! ring ! ring ! 
Ring for winter's bracing hours, 
Ring for birth of spring and flowers, 
Ring for summer's fruitful treasure, 
Ring for autumn's boundless measure, 
Ring for hands of generous giving, 
Ring for vows of nobler living, 
Ring for truths of tongue or pen, 
Ring, " Peace on earth, good-will toward men." 

Ring ! ring ! ring ! 
Eing, that this glad year may see 
Earth's accomplished jubilee 3 

Ring ! ring ! ring ! 

8. REVERENCE. 

Lord, my God, Thou art very great ! Thou art 
clothed with honor and majesty ; who coverest thyself 
with light as with a garment; who stretchest out the 
heavens like a curtain; who layeth the beams of his 
chambers in the waters ; who maketh the clouds his 
chariot; wdio walketh upon the wings of the wind; 
who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should 
not be removed forever. The BlhUm 

Examples of Explosive Orotund. 

1. THE BATTLE OF IVRY. 

Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories 
are ! 

And glory to our Sovereign Liege, King Henry of Na- 
varre ! 

Now let there be the merry sound of music and the 
dance, 

Through thy cornfields green, and sunny vales, -pleas- 
ant land of Frccnce / 



228 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

And thou, Eochelle, our own liochelle, proud city of the 

waters, 
Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourning 

daughters ; 
As thou wert constant in our ills, be joyous in our joy, 
For cold and stiff and still are they who wrought thy 

walls annoy. 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! a single field hath turned the chance 

of war. 
Hurrah! hurrah! for Ivry and King Henry of Nwohrrtl 

Macailav. 
2. RICHMOND TO HIS TROOPS. 

Fight, gentlemen of England ! fight, bold yeomen ! 
Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head: 
Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood ; 
Amaze the tvelkin with your broken staves. 
A thousand hearts are great within my bosom : 
Advance our standards, set upon our foes ! 
Our ancient word of cburage, fair St. George, 
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons ! 
Upon them ! Victory sits on our helms. Shakespeare. 

3. INDEPENDENCE. 

The great bell swung as ne'er before : 
It seemed as it would never cease ; 
And every word its ardor flung 
From off its jubilant iron tongue 

Was, "War! War ! WAB!" Read . 

4. INDEPENDENCE. 

Sir, before Gbd, I believe the hour is cbme/ My judg- 
ment approves this measure, and my whole Mart is in 
it. All that I hare, and all that I dm, and all that I 
hbpe, in tins life, I am now ready here to stake upon it : 
and I leave off. as I began, that, live or d\c, swrvivc or 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 229 

perish, I am for the declaration ! It is my living senti- 
ment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying 
sentiment — Independence now, and independence \ forever ! 

Webster. 

Explosive and Expulsive Orotund. 

These two forms of the orotund are often combined 
in the same piece, and ■ it is not easy to draw a marked 
line of division. In impassioned declamation the utter- 
ance changes from one to the other, according to the 
degree of feeling or passion. The following extract 
affords an illustration : 

1. Webster's tribute to Massachusetts. 

Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon 
Massachusetts ; she needs none. There she is ; behold 
her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; 
the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. 
There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and 
Bunker Hill ; and there they will remain forever. The 
bones of her sons, fallen in the great struggle for Inde- 
pendence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State, 
from New England to Georgia; and there they will lie 
forever. 

And, sir, where American Liberty raised its first voice, 
and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there 
it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of 
its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound 
it ; if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and 
tear it; if folly and madness, if uneasiness under salu- 
tary and necessary restraint, shall succeed in separating 
it from that Union by which alone its existence is made 
sure — it will stand, in the end, by the side of that cradle 
in which its infancy teas rocked ; it will stretch forth its 
arm, with whatever of vigor it may still retain, over the 
friends who gatlier round it ; and it will fall at last, if 



230 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION 



fall it must, amid the proudest monuments of its own 
glory, and on the very spot of its origin. 



III. Aspirated Quality. 
Aspirated quality means, in general, a combination of 
tone with whisper, causing the huskiness and harshness 

produced by a superabundance of breath under the in- 
fluence of powerful emotions, such as anger, rage, terror, 
and horror. The whisper represents the extreme oi' 
aspirated quality. 

The Whisper. 

The pure whisper lies half way between breathing 
and vocality. The half-whisper is a combination of 
tone and whisper. The forcible whisper is a most val- 
uable vocal exercise. It requires full, deep, and frequent 
breathing, and the vigorous use of the lips, tongue, and 
other vocal organs. The degrees of force in the whisper 
are indicated by the terms effusive, expulsive, and ex- 
plosive. 

The pure whisper is rarely used in reading, the effect 
being generally suggested by the half-whisper, or by aspi- 
rated quality. The following exercises and examples are 
o-iven for the purposes of vocal training. 

Table of Aspirates. 

[First whisper the words, then the aspirates, and then give the phonic 
spelling of each word in a forcible whisper.] 



p 


p-i-pe, 


li-p 


t 


t-eu-t, 


t-as-te 


wh 


wh-en, 


wh-y 


eh 


ch-ur-ch, 


bir-ch 


f 


f-i-fo, 


lea-f 


sh 


sh-all, 


la-sh 


th 


th-ick, 


my-th 


h 


h-o\v, 


h-ail 


s 


s-ale, 


le-ss 


k 


ea-ke, 


la-ke 



school elocution. 231 

Whisper Drill. 

Practice each exercise with three degrees of force : (1) 
Effusive, or soft. (2) Expulsive, or forcible. (3) ExjjIo- 
sive, or intense. 

1. With effusive force, repeat as many times as pos- 
sible without taking breath: a-c-I-o-u. 

2. To a, e, I, 6, u, join /, and repeat as above ; join 
t; join h. 

3. Count, in a whisper, from one to ten, with one 
breath ; from one to twenty ; one to thirty, or more. 

Examples of Effusive Whisper. 

1. Step softly, and speak low. 

2. Whisper ! she is going to her final rest. 
Whisper! life is growing dim within her breast. 

3. Hark ! hist ! around I list. 

The bounds of space all trace efface 
Of sound. 

4. And his little daughter whispered, 

As she took his icy hand : 
"Isn't God upon the water, 
Just the same as on the land?" 

5. And again to the child I whispered : 

" The snow that hushcth all, 
Darling, the merciful Father 
Alone can make it fall ! " 

6. And the bridemaidens whispered : " 'Tiverc better by far, 
To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar." 

7. The red rose cries, " She is near, she is near ; " 
And the white rose weeps, "She is late;" 
The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;" 
And the lily whispers, " I wait." 



232 school elocution. 

Examples of Expulsive Whisper. 

1. Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! they 
come ! they come ! '• 

2. To bed, to bed ; there 's knocking at the gate. 
Come, come, come, give me your hand. 

3. Soldiers ! You are now within a few steps of the 
enemy's outposts. Let every man keep the strictest 
silence, under pain of instant death. 

Examples of Explosive Whisper. 

1. Hark ! I hear the bugles of the enemy. For the 
boats ! Forward ! Forward ! 

2. Hamlet. Saw ! tchu 1 

Horatio. The king, your father. 
Hamlet. The Icing, my father ? 

3. Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, 

That mak'st my blood run cold and my hair to stand ! 

Whisper and Toxe. 

In some of the following illustrations of aspirated 
quality, the whisper predominates over tone ; in others, 
the aspiration only affects the tone with a marked 
roughness, huskiness, or aspirated harshness. The extent 
to which aspirated quality may be applied is often a 
matter of taste on the part of the reader. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. But hush ! hark ! a deep sound strikes like a rising 
knell. 

2. THE CURFEW BELL. 

"Sexton," Bessie's white lips faltered, pointing to the 

prison old, 
With its walls so dark and gloomy — walls so dark, ami 

damp, and cold — 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 233 

" I Ve a lover in that prison, doomed this very night 

to die, 
At the ringing of the Curfew, and no earthly help is nigh. 
Cromwell will not come till sunset," and her face grew 

strangely white, 
As she spoke in husky whispers, " Curfew must not ring 

to-night." 

3. MACBETH TO THE GHOST. 

Avaunt ! and quit my sight I Let the earth huh thee ! 
Thy bones are mdrrowless, thy blood is cold: 
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 
Which thou dost glare with ! 

Hence, horrible shadow ! 
Unreal mockery, hence ! 

4. HAMLET TO THE GHOST. 

[Aspirated quality and occasional half -whisper. \ 

Angels and ministers of grace defend us ! 

Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned — 

Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell — 

Be thy intents wicked, or charitable — 

Thou com'st in such a questionable shape 

That I ivill speak to thee. 1 11 call thee, Hamlet, 

King, father, royal Dane : Oh, answer me : 

Let me not burst in ignorance ! but tell 

Why thy canonized bones, hearsdd in death, 

Have burst their cerements ! why the sepulcher, 

Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned, 

Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, 

To cast thee up again ? What may this mean, 

That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel, 

Ptevisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, 

Making night hideous : and we fools of nature, 

So horribly to shake our disposition, 

W r ith thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls ? 

Say, u'hy is this ? wherefore ? what should we do ? 



234 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

5. FROM "EUGENE AKA.M." 

[Horror and remorse. Aspirated pectoral and guttural quality.] 
And, lo ! the universal air 

Seemed lit with ghastly flame ; — 
Ten thousand thousand dreadful eyes 

Were looking down in blame : 
I took the dead man by his hand, 

And called upon his name ! 

God ! it made me quake to see 
Such sense within the slain ! 

But when I touched the lifeless clay, 

The blood gushed out amain ! 
For every clot, a burning spot 

Was scorching in my brain ! 

And now, from forth the frowning sky, 
From the heaven's topmost height, 

1 heard a voice — the awful voice 
Of the blood-avenging sprite : — 

" Thou guilty man! take up thy dead 

And hide it from my sight!" hood. 

C. MACBETH. 

[Horror and fear. Intense suppressed force ; prevailing monotone : 
very slow movement; strong aspirated quality.] 

Now o'er the one half world 
Nature seems dead ; and wicked dreams abuse 
The curtained sleep ; now witchcraft celebrates 
Fale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder, 
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf, 
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace. 
Towards his design 

Moves lilce ei ghbst. — Thou sure and firm-sot earth ! 
Hear not my stops, which way they walk; for (ear 
The very stbnes prate of my whereabout, 
And take the present horror from the time 
Which now suits with it. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 235 

7. DARIUS GREEN AND HIS FLYING MACHINE. 

[Secrecy. Forcible whisper and half -whisper. ~\ 

And one by one, through a hole in the wall, 
In under the dusty barn they crawl, 
Dressed in their Sunday garments all ; 
And a very astonishing sight was that, 
When each in his cobwebbeel coat and hat 
Came up through the floor like an ancient rat. 

And there they hid; 

And Eeuben slid 
The fastenings back, and the door undid. 

" Keep dark ! " said he, 
"While I squint an' see what the' is to see." 

'* Hush ! " Eeuben said, 

" He 's up in the shed ! 
He 's opened the winder — I see his head ! 
He stretches it out, an' pokes it about, 
Lookin' to see 'f the coast is clear, 

An' nobody near; — 
Guess he don' o' who 's hid in here ! 
He 's riggin' a spring-board over the sill ! 
Stop laffin', Solomon ! Burke, keep still ! 
He 's a-climbing out now — Of all the things ! 
What's he got on? I van, it's wings! 
An' that 't other thing ? T vum, it 's a tail ! 
An' there he sets like a hawk on a rail ! 
Steppin' careful, he travels the length 
Of his spring-board, and teeters to try its strength. 
Now he stretches his wings, like a monstrous bat ; 
Peeks over his shoulder, this way an' that, 
Fer to see 'f there 's any one passin' by ; 
But there 's on'y a ca'f an' a goslin' nigh. 

Flop — flop — an' plump 

To the ground with a thump, 
Flutterin' and flounderin' all in a lump." Trowbridge. 



236 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



Special Aspirate Drill. 

[In 2^'Oiiouncing the following words having the combination hw, 



the aspiration is often very feebly given or not given at all. 
the hw with marked force.] 



Sound 



way 


ivlicy 


wet 


whet 


wear 


where 


wit 


whit 


weal 


wheel 


wot 


what 


wen 


wlwn 


wig 


whig 


were 


wliir 


wield 


w'heclccl 


wine 


whine 


witch 


which 


wight 


wldte 


wist 


whist 


wile 


while 


weather 


wJiether 



Pronunciation Drill. 



[Keep the lungs 
each word.] 


u'dl filed icith air and exhaust the breath upo 


whale 


whalebone 


whatever 


whap 
wharf 


whapper 

wharfage 


whatsoever 
wheelbarrow 


wheat 


what-not 


wheel-horse 


wheeze 


wheezing 


wheelwright 


whelp 


whereas 


whensoever 


whelm 


wherever 


wheresoever 


whence 


whenever 


whereabout 


whew 


whereby 


whereunto 


whiff 


wherefore 


wherewithal 


whim 


whiffle 


whimper 


whip 
whir 


whinny 
whirlwind 


whipsaw 

whirligig 


whirl 


whistle 


whisper 


whisk 


whittle 


whizzing 


white 


whither 


whoa 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 237 

IV. Guttural Quality. 

The guttural, or throat, quality is the harsh, grating, 
rasping utterance to which the voice tends in the ex- 
pression of hatred, contempt, revenge, and loathing. It 
is often combined with aspirated quality in the expres- 
sion of extreme impatience or disgust, intense rage, and 
extreme contempt. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. OTHELLO. 

Oh, that the slave had forty thousand lives, 
My great revenge had stomach for them all. 

2. THE SPY. 

You shall die, base dog ! and that before 
Yon cloud has passed over the sun ! 

3. SHYLOCK TO ANTONIO. 

Signior Antonio, many a time and 6ft, 
On the Bialto you have rated me 
About my moneys and my usances; 
Still have I borne it with a patient shriig, 
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe : 
You call me — misbeliever, cut-throat, dog, 
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, 
And all for use of that which is mine bum. 
Well, then, it now appears, you need my help. 
Go to, then; you come to me, and you say, 
" Shylock, we would have moneys ; " you say so ; 
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, 
And foot me as you spurn a stranger cilr 
Over your threshold; moneys is your suit. 
What should I say to you ? Should I not say, 
"Hath a dog money? is it possible 
A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? " or 
Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key, 
With bated breath, and whispering humbleness, 



238 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Say this : — 

" Fair sir, you spelt on me on Wednesday last ; 
You splXmecl me such a day; another time 
You called me — dog ; and for these courtesies 
I'll lend you — thus much — moneys? 

V. The Falsetto. 

The falsetto is the thin, sharp, high-pitched tone pro- 
duced when the voice breaks, or gets above its natural 
compass. It is used by men when they imitate the voices 
of women and children. It is the tone suitable for the 
expression of old age, sickness, feebleness, pain, and 
helpless terror. 

1. "My child! my child!" with sobs and tears, 
She shrieked upon his callous ears. 

2. " Billy — where are you, Billy, I say ? Come, Billy, 
come home to your best of mothers ! " 

3. And even Tiny Tim, excited by the two young 
Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, 
and feebly cried, " Hurrah ! " 

4. Mr. Orator Puff had two tones in bis voice, 

The one squeaking thus, and the other down so; 
In each sentence he uttered he gave you your choice ; 
For one half was B alt, and the rest G below. 
Oh ! oh ! Orator Puff, 
One voice for an orator's surely enough I 

"Oh! save!" he exclaimed, in his he-and-she tones, 
" Help me out ! help me out ! I have broken my bones ! " 
" Help you out ! " said a stranger, who passed, " what 

a bother! 
Why, there's two of you there; can't you help one 
another ? " 

Oh ! oh ! Orator Puff, 

One voice for an orator 's surely enough ! 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 239 

5. And in a coaxing tone he cries, 
"Charcot chared!" 
And baby with a laugh replies, 
iC Ah, go! Ah, go!" 
"■Charco , !"—"Ah, go!" 

VI. The Semitone. 

When the voice slides through the interval of a semi- 
tone only, it gives the plaintive tones expressive of 
sadness, grief, or pathetic entreaty. If the inflection 
runs through the interval of a tone and a half — a minor 
third in music — it becomes more plaintive, and marks 
a stronger degree of pathos or sadness ; and when the 
inflection extends into the minor fifth, it denotes still 
stronger pathetic feeling. 

The semitone, then, is the plaintive tone in reading, 
corresponding to the minor key in music. It should be 
used delicately, for, in excess, it runs into the whine, 
or becomes the affectation of cant. 

Semitone Deill. 

1. Sound the vocals, a, e, I, 5, u, three times, on the 
interval between C and C sharp ; then on the minor 
third ; then on the minor fifth. 

2. Count from one to twenty on the same notes as 
above. 

Examples of Semitone. 

1. O come in life, or come in death, 
lost ! my love, Elizabeth. 

2. For I am poor and miserably old. 

3. How many hired servants of my father's have 
bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger ! 
I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, 



240 SCHOOL ELOCUTION". 

"Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, 
and am no more worthy to be called thy son : make 
me as one of thy hired servants ! " 

4. MY CHILD. 

I can not make him dead ! 

His fair sunshiny head 
Is ever bounding round my study, chair; 

Yet, when my eyes, now dim 

With tears, I turn to him, 
The vision vanishes, he is not there ! 

I walk my parlor floor, 

And, through the open door, 
I hear a footfall on the chamber stair ; 

I 'm stepping toward the hall 

To give the boy a call; 
And then bethink me that he is not there ! 

PlERPOXT. 

5. Hiawatha. 
the long and dreary Winter ! 
the cold and cruel Winter ! 
Ever thicker, thicker, thicker 
Froze the ice on lake and river; 
Ever deeper, deeper, deeper 
Fell the snow o'er all the landscape, 
Fell the covering snow, and drifted 
Through the forest, round the village. 

the famine and the fever ! 

the wasting of the famine ! 

O the blasting of the fever ! 

the wailing of the children ! 

the anguish of the women ! 

All the earth was sick and famished ; 

Hungry was the air around them, 

Hungry was the sky above them, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 241 

And the hungry stars in heaven 

Like the eyes of wolves glared at them ! 

"Give your children food, Father! 

Give us food, or we must perish ! 

Give me food for Minnehaha, 

For my dying Minnehaha!" 

Through the far-resounding forest, 

Through the forest vast and vacant 

Eang that cry of desolation ; 

But there came no other answer 

Than the echo of his crying, 

Than the echo of the woodlands, 

" Minnehaha ! Minnehaha ! " Longfellow. 

6. BABIE BELL. 

It came upon us by degrees, 

We saw its shadow ere it fell, 
The knowledge that our God had sent 

His messenger for Babie Bell. 

We shuddered with unlanguaged pain, 
And all our thoughts ran into tears, 

Like sunshine into rain. 

We cried aloud in our belief, 
" Oh, smite us gently, gently, God ! 
Teach us to bend and kiss the rod, 

And 'perfect grow through grief? 
Ah, how we loved her, God can tell ; 

Her heart was folded deep in ours ; 
Our hearts are broken, Babie Bell. aldrich. 

7. MACBETH. 

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day 
To the last syllable of recorded time, 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 

The Way tO dusty death. Shakespeare. 

16 



242 -SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

8. new YEAR'S eve. 

You '11 bury me, my mother, just beneath the hawthorn 

shade ; 
And you'll come sometimes and see me where I am 

lowly laid. 
I shall not forget you, mother; I shall hear you when 

you pass, 
With your feet above my head in the long and pleasant 



Good-niorht, good-ni^ht ! When I have said Q-ood-ni^ht 

for evermore, 
And you see me carried out from the threshold of the 

door, 
Do n't let Effie come to see me till my grave be growing 

green — 
She '11 be a better child to you than ever I have been. 

Tennyson's May Queen. 
9. FROM "BERTHA IN THE LANE." 

[This extract should be read with subdued force, slow movement, 
and 'prevailing poetic monotone and semitone.'] 

Colder grow my hands and feet ; — 
When I wear the shroud I made, 

Let the folds lie straight and neat, 
And the rosemary be spread ; — 

That if any friend should come 

(To see thee, sweet!), all the room 

May be lifted out of gloom. 

And, dear Bertha, let me keep 

On my hand this little ring — 
Which at nights, when others sleep, 

I can still see flittering. 
Let me wear it out of sight, 
In the grave — where it will light 
All the dark up, day and night 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 243 

On that grave drop not a tear ! 

Else, though fathom-deep the place, 
Through the woolen shroud I wear 

I shall feel it on my face. 
Eather smile there, blessed one, 
Thinking of me in the sun; 
Or forget me— smiling ou ! E . B . browning. 

VII. Eecapitulation of Quality. 

1. Pure tone is the tone of ordinary conversation, and 
of unimpassioned didactic, narrative, or descriptive reading. 

2. The orotund is the tone expressive of deep feeling, 
of reverence, of sublimity, and of grandeur. It prevails 
in oratorical declamation, and in the reading or recita- 
tion of lyric or dramatic poetry. 

3. Aspirated quality is expressive of secrecy, feebleness, 
terror, horror, and amazement. 

4. Guttural quality is expressive of disgust, impatience, 
hatred, and revenge, 

5. TJie semitone is the plaintive expression, in the minor 
key, of pathos, pity, grief, or entreaty. 

Examples of Quality. 

PURE TONE. 

Was it the chime of a tiny bell 

That came so sweet to my dreaming ear ? 

OROTUND. 

1. Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul f 

2. And let the bass of heaven's deep organ blow. 

WHISPER. 

To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. 
Come, come, come, give me your hand. 



244 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

ASPIRATED. 

Angels, and ministers of grace, defend us. 

GUTTURAL. 

How like a fawning publican lie looks ! 

SEMITONE. 

For Heaven's sake, Hubert, let me not be bound. 

VIII. General Eeyiew Drill. 

1. Eepeat, three times, the long vowel sounds, a, e, I, 
6, u : (1) With moderate rising inflection. (2) Moderate 
falling inflection. (3) High rising inflection. (4) Em- 
phatic falling inflection. (5) High rising circumflex. 
(6) Emotional falling circumflex. (7) Low monotone. 

2. Eepeat, three times, a, e, I, o, u. : (1) With very 
soft force. (2) With soft force. (3) With moderate 
force. (4) Loud force. (5) Very loud force. 

3. Eepeat, three times, a, e, I, 6, u : (1) With the 
median stress. (2) With the radical stress. (3) With 
compound stress. (4) With vanishing stress. (5) Thor- 
ough stress. (6) With intermittent stress. 

4. Eepeat, three times, a, e, I, 6, li: (1) With slow 
movement. (2) With moderate movement. (3) With 
fast movement. 

5. Eepeat, three times, a, c, I, 5, ii : (1) With very 
high pitch. (2) With high pitch. (3) With middle 
pitch. (4) With low pitch, (o) With very low pitch. 

G. Eepeat, three times, a, e, I, 5, u : (1) With the 
whisper. (2) With pure tone. (3) With the orotund. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 245 



CHAPTER VI. 

MODULATION AND STYLE OF 
EXPRESSION, 



SECTION I. 
MODULATION. 

1. Modulation is the variation in the tones of the 
voice in order to express the ever-varying thought, 
feeling, emotion, or passion to be expressed. 

2. These changes depend largely upon the perception, 
taste, and judgment of readers ; upon the extent to 
which readers are capable of entering into the spirit of 
what they read ; and upon the flexibility of the voice 
in expressing different shades of emotion by appropri- 
ate tones. 

3. There are certain general principles that control 
modulation, but there are no fixed rules of detail which 
can be applied in the exercise of " good taste.'' 

4. " The importance of this principle of adaptation of 
voice," says Prof. William Russell, "may be perceived 
by adverting to the fact, that nothing so impairs the 
effect of address, as the want of spirit and expression 
in elocution. 

5. " No gravity of tone, or intensity of utterance, or 
precision of enunciation, can atone for the absence of 
that natural change of voice, by which the ear is enabled 
to receive and recognize the tones of the various emo- 
tions accompanying the train of thought which the 
speaker is expressing. These, and these only, can indi- 



246 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

cate Lis own sense of what he utters, or communicate 
it by sympathy to his audience. 

6. " The adaptation of the voice to the expression of 
sentiment is not less important, when considered in ref- 
erence to meaning, as dependent on distinctions strictly 
intellectual, or not necessarily implying a vivid or varied 
succession of emotions. 

7. " The correct and adequate representation of con- 
tinuous or successive thought, requires its appropriate 
intonation ; as may be observed in those tones of voice 
which naturally accompany discussion and argument, 
even in their most moderate forms. 

8. "The modulation or varying of tone is important, 
also, as a matter of cultivated taste. It is the appropri- 
ate grace of vocal expression ; it has a charm founded 
in the constitution of our nature ; it touches the finest 
and deepest sensibilities of the soul ; it constitutes the 
spirit and eloquence of the human voice, whether re- 
garded as the noblest instrument of music, or the 
appointed channel of thought and feeling." 

I. General Principles. 

1. A low hey is the natural expression of awe, rever- 
ence, solemnity, sadness, and melancholy ; a high key, of 
violent passions, such as anger and rage, joy and exulta- 
tion. The middle key is the natural pitch of conversation, 
and of unimpassioned narrative, descriptive, or didactic 
writing. 

2. Soft or gentle force is expressive of subdued feeling, 
pathos, and tenderness ; loud force, of strong passions 
and oratorical declamation; moderate force, of unimpas- 
sioned thought. 

3. Slow movement is appropriate to the expression of 
deep thought, power, grandeur, sublimity, solemnity; 
movement is characteristic of vivacity, joy, and uncon- 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 247 

trolled passion ; moderate movement, of uninipassioned 
narrative, descriptive, or didactic pieces. 

4. The ivhisper is expressive of secrecy, silence, or 
extreme fear; guttural quality, of revenge, hatred, despair, 
horror, or. loathing ; the orotund, of power, grandeur, 
vastness, sublimity ; the falsetto, of puerility or weak- 
ness ; the semitone, of sadness and pathetic entreaty. 

5. The radical stress is expressive of command, 
assertion, force, power, and excited feelings ; the median 
stress, of peace, tranquillity, solemnity, grandeur, sub- 
limity, reverence, and awe. 

6. Then there is the variety that arises from imitative 
reading, or the suiting of the sound to the word, phrase, 
or sentence; and that of personation, or the changes of 
expression to denote the different characters in a dia- 
logue or play. 

II. Style of Beading. 

1. The following analysis of a good style of reading 
is taken from Russell's " American School Eeader " : " If 
we observe attentively the voice of a good reader or 
speaker, we shall find his style of utterance marked by 
the following traits. His voice pleases the ear by its 
very sound. It is wholly free from affected suavity ; 
yet, while perfectly natural, it is round, smooth, and 
agreeable. It is equally free from the faults of feeble- 
ness and of undue loudness. 

2. " It is perfectly distinct, in the execution of every 
sound, in every word. It is free from errors of negli- 
gent usage and corrupted style in pronunciation. It 
avoids a measured, rhythmical chant, on the one hand, 
and a broken, irregular movement, on the other. 

3. " It renders expression clear, by an attentive ob- 
servance of appropriate pauses, and gives weight and 
effect to sentiment, by occasional impressive cessations 
of voice. It sheds light on the meaning of sentences, 



248 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

by the emphatic force which it gives to significant and 
expressive words. 

4. " It avoids the c school ' tone of uniform inflections, 
and varies the voice upward or downward, as the suc- 
cessive clauses of a sentence demand. It marks the 
character of every emotion, by its peculiar traits of 
tone ; and hence its effect upon the ear, in the utterance 
of connected sentences and paragraphs, is like that of 
a varied melody, in music, played or sung with ever- 
varying feeling and expression." 



SECTIOX II. 

THE BEADING OF POETRY. 

I. Introductory. 

1. Pupils are sometimes told to read verse as if it were 
prose. Such a direction may be given to counteract 
the tendency to sing-song, or it may be applied in the 
reading of doggerel rhymes ; but it cannot be applied to 
the reading of poetry. 

2. Poetry, being the language of imagination, senti- 
ment, or passion, requires, as compared with prose, a 
greater variety of expression. Moreover, poetry is 
rhythmical and melodious, and, in reading it, attention 
must be given to movement and harmony. 

3. "The modulation of the voice," says Prof. Russell, 
" in adaptation to different specie* of metrical composi- 
tion, is indispensable to the appropriate or effective 
reading of verse. The purest forms of poetry become, 
when deprived of this aid, nothing but awkward prose. 
A just and delicate observance of the effect of meter, 
on the other hand, is one of the surest means of im- 
parting that inspiration of feeling which it is the de- 
sign of poetry to produce." 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 249 

4. In the reading of poetry, the pupil should bear in 
mind the following hints : (1) The movement, or time, 
in verse, is generally slower than in prose, the vowel 
and liquid sounds being slightly prolonged. (2) In 
poetry, as compared with prose, the force is somewhat 
softened for the sake of melody. (3) The existence of 
meter in poetry requires a rendering of verse different 
from the reading of prose. The meter should not be 
made prominent, but should be delicately indicated. As 
in prose, attention must be given to the sense, to em- 
phasis, and to inflection. 



II. CLesural Pauses. 

The esesural pause is a slight rest occurring some- 
where near the middle of the line in certain kinds of 
verse. In heroic and blank verse, it commonly falls at 
the end of the fourth syllable. In smoothly written 
verse, the grammatical pause marking a phrase or a 
clause is often made to coincide with the esesural pause. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. This is the place, | the centre of the grove : 
Here stands the oak, | the monarch of the wood. 
How sweet and solemn | is this midnight scene ! 
The silver moon, | unclouded, holds her way 
Through skies where I | could count each little star; 
The fanning west wind | scarcely stirs the leaves. 

2. A man he w r as | to all the country dear, 
And passing rich | with forty pounds a year; 
Eemote from towns | he ran his godly race, 

Nor e'er had changed, | nor wished to change, his place ; 
Unpracticecl he | to fawn, or seek for power, 
By doctrines fashioned | to the varying hour; 
Far other aims | his heart had learned to prize, 
More skilled to raise | the wretched than to rise. 



250 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

III. Meter, or Piiytilmical Accent. 

1. Meter is the measure of rhythm, or metrical feet, 
in poetry. One difference between the reading of prose 
and of poetry consists in the distinctive marking of the 
rhythm in verse. If read without regard to rhythm, 
the sonorous harmony of the higher forms of poetry is 
lost. 

2. As some knowledge of prosody is generally obtained 
from the school text-books on rhetoric, only an allusion 
to the subject is necessary in a manual of elocution. 

3. In reading poetry, the measure should be delicately 
indicated, but not made so prominent as to run into 
sing-song, or to break the grammatical relation of words. 

4. The melody of verse often depends on making some 
word, or successive words, slightly emphatic, as in the 
following line from Longfellow's " Psalm of Life : " 

"And things | arc not | wlvdt they | seem." 
If " not " is emphasized, the rhythm is broken. So in 
the successive stanzas of Bryant's " Planting of the 
Apple-tree," the emphasis in the last line of the suc- 
cessive stanzas falls as follows : 

1. "So plant we | the apple-tree" 

2. "When we plant | the apple-tree" etc. 

IV. Kinds of Verse. 

1. The following summary from Prof. Russell's "Amer- 
ican Elocutionist " may be of interest to the critical 
student: "The influence of the various kinds of verse 
on the voice may be considered as affecting generally 
the rate, or movement, and the time, of utterance. 

2. "Thus, blank verse is remarkably slow and stately 
in the character of its tone ; and the timing of the 
pauses requires attention chiefly to length. Heroic r 

is commonly in the scone prevailing strain, but not to 
such an extent as the preceding. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 251 

3. "The octosyllabic meter is generally more quick and 
lively in its movement, and the pauses are comparatively 
brief. But, under the influence of slow time, it gives 
intensity to grief, and tenderness to the pathetic tone. 

4 " The quatrain, or four-lined stanza, in the common 
form (called sometimes common meter), has a compara- 
tively musical arrangement of the lines, and a peculiar 
character in its cadence, which admits of its expressing 
the extremes of emotion whether grave or gay. It prevails, 
accordingly, in hymns and in ballads alike, whether the 
latter are pathetic or humorous. It derives the former 
character from the observance of slow rate, and the lat- 
ter from quick rate. 

5. " Trochaic verse has a peculiar energy, from the 
abruptness of its character — the foot commencing either 
with a long or an accented syllable. In gay pieces, and 
with quick time in utterance, it produces a dancing strain 
of voice, peculiarly adapted to the expression of joy ; 
while in grave and vehement strains, with slow time, it 
produces the utmost force and severity of tone. These 
two extremes are strikingly exemplified in Milton's 
' I/ Allegro ' and ' II Penseroso.' 

6. " Anapaestic meter has a peculiar fullness and sweet- 
ness of melody. Slow time accordingly renders it deeply 
pathetic, and quick time renders it the most graceful 
expression of joy. This, as well as iambic and trochaic 
verse, becomes well fitted to express the mood of calm- 
ness and tranquillity, when the rate is rendered moderate" 

V. Accent of Wokds. 

The accent of a word is sometimes changed to prevent 
breaking the measure, as in the following examples: 

1. Ye icefalls ! ye that from your dizzy heights 
Adown enormous rav'ines slope amain. 
l 2. That thou, dead corse, arrayed in complete steel. 



252 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

3. And these few precepts in thy memory, see thou 
character. 

4. Then lend the eye a terrible aspect'. 

5. I must be patient till the heavens look with an 
aspect? more favorable. 

VI. Final -ed. 

The final -ed is often sounded as a separate syllable, 
to prevent a break in the meter. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. To live with her and live with thee 
In unreproved pleasures free. 

2. Of linked sweetness long drawn out. 

3. Eode aimed men adown the glen. 

4. Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed. 

5. And as he plucked his cursed steel away. 

6. To wear an undeserved dignity. 

7. That orbed maiden with white fire laden. 

8. Whereat she smile'd with so sweet a cheer. 

9 While that the armdd hand doth fight abroad, 
The advisexl head defends itself at home. 

VII. Rhyme. 

In reading poetry, the words that rhyme must some- 
times be specially emphasized. Sometimes, also, the pro- 
nunciation of a word may be changed to make it rhyme 
with another word, as wind for wind. 

In reading the following couplet from Hudibras, 
"And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic, 
He beat with drum instead of a stick.'' 
it becomes necessary to emphasize the a, or rather to 






SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 253 

sound the two words "a stick" like a word of two syl- 
lables accented on the first, thus — afstick. 

In reading the following lines from the same poem, 
the word " coloneling " is pronounced exactly as it is 
spelled, col r o net ing, in four syllables : 

"Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling, 
And out lie rode a-coloncling." 
Also, in the following, 

"And wisely tell what hour o' th' day 
The clock does strike, by algebra," 
the long sound is given to fiual a in algebra, to make 
the word rhyme with day. 

In the following couplets from Holmes, the rhyming 
words are italicized for emphasis : 
"It is a pity and a shame — alas! alas! I know it is, 
To tread the trodden grapes again, but so it has been, 
so it is." 
In this example the three words, "know it is," are 
pronounced like a word of three syllables, accented on 
the first, thus — knou/-it-is ; so, also, so'-it-is. 

VIII. Examples of Khyme. 

1. AT THE ATLANTIC DINNER. 

I suppose it 's myself that you 're making allusion to, 
And bringing the sense of dismay and confusion to. 
Of course some must speak — they are always selected to, 
But pray what 's the reason that I am expected to ? 
I 'm not fond of wasting my breath as those fellows do 
That want to be blowing forever as bellows do ; 
Their legs are uneasy, but why will you jog any 
That long to stay quiet beneath the mahogany ? 

Holmes. 
2. CLASS MEETING, 1875. 

It is a pity and a shame — alas ! alas ! I know it is, 
To tread the trodden grapes again, but so it has been, 
so it is ; 



254 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

The purple vintage long is past, with ripened clusters 

bursting so 
They filled the wine-vats to the brim — 't is strange you 

will be thirsting so ! 

For who can tell by what he likes what other people's 
fancies are ? 

How all men think the best of wives their own par- 
ticular Nancies are ! 

If what I sing you brings a smile, you will not stop 
to catechise, 

Nor read Bceotia's lumbering line with nicely scanning 
- Attic eyes. 

Though on the once unfurrowed brows the harrow-teeth 

of Time may show, 
Though all the strain of crippling years the halting 

feet of rhyme may show, 
We look and hear with melting hearts, for what we all 

remember is 
The morn of Spring, nor heed how chill the sky of 

gray November is. 

Thanks to the gracious powers above from all mankind 

that singled us, 
And dropped the pearl of friendship in the cup they 

kindly mingled us, 
And bound us in a wreath of flowers with hoops of 

steel knit under it; — 
Nor time, nor space, nor chance, nor change, nor deatli 

himself shall sunder it ! holmes. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 255 

SECTION III. 
IMITATIVE BEADING. 

The extent to which imitative reading, or the suiting 
of sound to sense, may properly be carried, in certain 
classes of selections, is a matter in regard to which 
there is a diversity of opinion among elocutionists. It 
is one of those questions of taste that cannot be regu- 
lated by definite directions applicable to all cases. Some 
general principles, however, may be laid down, from 
which there is no intelligent dissent. 

The style of reading should be imitative in the sense 
of making it conform to the spirit and meaning of the 
piece. 

In the utterance of words in which the sound seems 
to approximate to the sense, such as buzz, hiss, thunder, 
groan, sigh, scream, etc, the tone may be suggestive of 
the idea. Thus, in reading such passages as, 
"From his lips escaped a groan,' 
though an actual groan would be .ridiculous, the word 
"groan" may be uttered so as to suggest a groan. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Hear the loud alarum bells — brazen bells. 

2. Clang ! clang ! the massive anvils ring. 

3. Blow, bugle; answer echoes, dying, dying, dying. . 

4. Oh ! the bells ! what a talc their terror tells 

Of despair! 
How they clang, and clash, and roar, 
What a horror they outpoiir 

On the bosom of the palpitating air ! 

"Wherever the author distinctly suggests an imitation, 
it should be given so far as is consistent with good 
taste. Thus, when Longfellow writes, 

"And loud that clarion voice replied," 



256 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

it is evident that the refrain, "Excelsior!" should be 
given in a loud, clear, resonant manner. 

Examples for Practice. 

1. A voice replied for up the height, "Excelsior!" 

2. She seemed in the same silver tones to say, 

" Passing away, passing away ! " 

3. What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous 
bird of yore 

Meant in croaking, "Nevermore." 

4. An ancient time-piece says to all, 

" Forever — never ! Never — -forever ! ; ' 

5. "To all the truth we tell, we tell/' 
Shouted in ecstasies a bell. 

6. BUNKER HILL. 

How the bayonets gleamed and glistened, as we looked 
far down and listened 

To the trampling and the drum-heat of the belted gren- 
adiers. 

Over heaps all torn and gory — shall I tell the fearful 
story, 

How they surged above the breastwork as a sea breaks 
o'er a deck; 

How, driven, yet scarce defeated, our worn-out men 
retreated, 

With their powder-horns all emptied, like the swimmers 
from a wreck ! IIo . , 

Imitation should not be too literal. The attempt is 
sometimes made in reading Tennyson's "Bugle Song," 
to snve a realistic imitation of the notes of a bugle. 
While the professional reader may attempt such a feat 
of vocal gymnastics, it is certainly outside of the limits 
of good taste in school reading. The words. " Blow, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 257 

bugle, blow," may be given with a prolonged swell, and 
in a thin, clear, pnre tone, so as to suggest the bugle 
note. 

So in reciting Poe's " Bells," the imitative rendering 
is often carried to a ridiculous extreme. In these and 
similar cases it is not a literal reproduction of the 
sound that should be attempted, but an artistic and 
idealized suggestion of it. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. And "rummer, grumraer, grummer, 
Eolled the drum of the drummer, 

Through the morn. 

And rounder, rounder, rounder, 
Roared the iron six-pounder, 
Hurling death. 

2. I hear them marching o'er the hill ; 
I hear them fainter, fainter still. 

3. CHUKCH BELLS. 

" In deeds of love, excel ! excel ! " 
Chimed out from ivied towers a bell. 

" heed the ancient landmarks well ! " 
In solemn tones exclaimed a bell. 

" Ye purifying waters swell ! ? ' 
In mellow tones rung out a bell. 
"To all the truth we tell! we tell ! " 
SJiouted in ecstasies a bell. 

4. WEIENT THE COWS COME HOME. 

When Ivlinsde, klano-le, klingle, 

Far down the dusty diugle, 

The cows are coming home ; 
ISTow sweet and clear, now faint and low, 
The airy tinkliugs come and go, 
Like chimings from the far-off tower, 

17 



258 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Or patterings of an April shower 
That makes the daisies grow. 



That makes the daisies grow. 
Ko-ling, ko-lang, kolinglelingle, 

Far down the darkening dingle. 
The cows are coming home. 



5. CHAllCOAL. 

And thus from morn to eve he cried, 

" Charco' ! charco' ! " 
While echo faint and far replied, 

-Charco' !"— " Hark, 0!" 
And in a coaxing tone he cries, 

" Charco' ! charco' ! " 
And baby with a laugh replies, 

"Ah, go!" — "Ah, go! " 

" Charco' ! " — " Ah, go ! " trowbridgk. 

6. FIRE. 

Fire! fire! fire! 
See the red flames leaping higher. 

Peed ! peal ! peed ! 
Bells of brass and bells of steel. 

Crash ! crash ! crash ! 
See the fiery surges lash ! 

Fire ! fire ! fire ! 
Bristles every throbbing wire. 

7. EXCELSIOR. 

And like a silver clarion rung—" Excelsior I " 
And from his lips escaped a groan-— " Excelsior /" 
But still he answered with a sigh—" Excelsior ! 
A voice replied far up the height— " Excelsior ! " 

S. nil' PELLS. 

Hear the sledges with the bells— silrcr bells ! 
What a world of merriment their melody foretells! 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 259 

Hear the mellow v'eclding bells — golden bells ! 
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells ! 

Hear the loud alarum bells — brazen bells! 

What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells ! 

Hear the tolling of the bells — iron bells ! 

What a world of solemn thought their monody compels! 

POE. 



SECTION" IV. 
EXERCISES IX MODULATIOX. 

Modulation is the variation of voice according to the 
sentiment, thought, or emotion to be expressed. In im- 
passioned reading, tones are the most prominent quali- 
ties of voice. 

Thorough drill on the following examples will break 
up the tendency of pupils to read all kinds of selections 
in one formal " school-tone." It is left for teachers and 
pupils to exercise their own judgment and taste in the 
rendering of these extracts, which embrace a wide range 
of expression. 

EXAMPLES. 

1. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
Blow, bugle, answer echoes, dying, dying, dying. 

2. The loud wind dwindled to a whisper low. 

3. There is a silence where no sound may be. 

4. I hear them marching o'er the hill, 
I hear them fainter, fainter still. 

5. " Cusha, cusha, cusha," calling. 

6. To arms ! to arms ! to arms ! they cry. 

7. Arm ! arm ! — it is — it is the cannon's opening roar. 

8. Advance your standards, draw your willing swords ! 



260 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

9. Pity the sorrows of a poor old man. 

10. Ping, joyous chords ! — ring out again ! 

11. Poll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll. 

12. Come and trip it, as ye go, 
On the light fantastic toe. 

13. But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a ris- 
ing knell. 

14. Away ! away ! and on we dash. 

15. Forward the light brigade! 

16. All's hushed as midnight yet. 

17. Hail ! holy light, offspring of Heaven, first born. 

18. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! 

19. Silence how dead ! and darkness how profound ! 

20. Or whispering with white lips, " The foe ! they 
come, they come ! " 

21. Joy ! joy ! Shout, shout aloud for j6y ! 

22. Strike ! till the last armed foe expires ! 

23. How like a fawning publican he looks ! 

24. Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Death ! 

25. Ping the alarm-bell ! Murder ! and treason ! 

26. Pide softly ! ride slowly ! the onset is near ! 
Move slowly ! move softly ! the sentry may hear. 

27. No ! by St. Bride of Bothwell, no ! 

28. On a sudden open fly 

The infernal gates, and on their hinges grate 
Harsh thunder ! 

29. Heaven opened wide 

Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound, 
On golden hinges turning. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 261 

30. But gentler now the small waves glide, 
Like playful lambs on a mountain side. 

31. With many a weary step, and many a groan, 
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone. 

32. When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, 
The line, too, labors, and the words move slow. 

33. Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, 

And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows. 
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, 
The hoarse rouoh verse should like the torrent roar. 

34. Clang ! clang ! the massive anvils ring, 
Clang ! clang ! a hundred, hammers swing ; 
Like the thunder rattle of a tropic sky, 
The mighty blows still multiply. 

35. SONG OF THE SHIRT. 

Work ! work ! work ! 
Till the brain begins to swim ; 

Work ! work ! work ! 
Till the eyes are heavy and dim! 

Seam, and gusset, and band, 
Band, and gusset, and seam, 

Till over the buttons I fall asleep, 
And sew them on in a dream ! H ood. 

36. THE TWO VOICES FROM THE GRAVE. 

First Voice. 

How frightful the grave! how deserted and drear! 
With the howls of the storm- wind, the creaks of the bier, 
And the white bones all clattering together! 

Second Voice. 

How peaceful the grave! its quiet how deep! 
Its zephyrs breathe calmly, and soft is its sleep, 
And flow'rets perfume it with ether. 



262 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

37. MILITARY COMMAND. 

" Forward the Light Brigade ! 
Charge for the guns ! " lie said. 
Shoulder arms ! Forward march ! Halt ! 
Charge ! Chester, charge ! On ! Stanley, on ! 

38. THE HERALD'S CALL. 

Rejoice, ye men of Angiers, ring your bells, 

King John, your king and England's, doth approach. 

Open your gates and give the victor way. 



SECTION V. 
DIALECT BEADING AND PERSONATION. 

In dialect reading, the peculiarities of speech should 
be reproduced with fidelity, but should not be exagger- 
ated. In the reading of dialogues there is, of necessity, 
a marked change of tone and manner when the reader 
personates two or more characters. 

Examples of Dialect Reading. 

1. skipper ireson's hide. 
Scores of women, old and young, 
Strong of muscle, and glib of tongue, 
Pushed and pulled up the rocky lane, 
Shouting and singing the shrill refrain : 
"Here's Find Oirson, fur his liorrd horrt, 
Torrd an' fatherrd an' corr'd in a corrt 
By the women o MorbU'ead!* 1 whittier. 

2. THE deacon's masterpiece. 
But the Deacon swore, as deacons do, 
With an "I dcto nun," or an "I tell yeou" 
He would build one shay to beat the ta&wn, 
'n' the Icaounty 'n' all the hentry raoun* ; 
It should be so built that it couldn' break daown. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 263 

" Far," said the Deacon, " 't 's mighty plain 
Thut the weakes' place mus' stan' the strain ; 
'n' the way t' fix it, uz I maintain, 

Is only jest 
T' make that place uz strong uz the rest." 

Holmes. 
3. SPRING. 

little city-gals, do n't never go it 
Blind on the word o' noospaper or poet ! 
They're apt to puff', an' May-day seldom looks 
Up in the country ez it doos in books ; 
They're no more like than hornets'-nests an' hives, 
Or printed sarmons he to holy lives. 
I, with my trouses perched on cow-hide boots, 
Tuggin' my foundered feet out by the roots, 
Hev seen ye come to fling on April's hearse 
Your muslin nosegays from the milliner's — 
Puzzlin' to find dry ground your queen to choose, 
An' dance your throats sore in morocker shoes ; 
I've seen ye an' felt proud, thet, come wut would, 
Our Pilgrim stock wuz pithed with hardihood. 
Pleasure does make us Yankees kind o' winch, 
Ez though 'twuz sumthin' paid for by the inch ; 
But yit we du contrive to worry thru — 
Ef Dooty tells us thet the thing 's to du — 
An' kerry a hollerday, ef we set out, 
Ez stiddily ez though 'twuz a redoubt, Lowell. 

4. THE GRIDIROX. 

Patrick. I beg pardon, sir; but maybe I'm under a 
mistake, but I thought I was in Prance, sir. An't you 
all furriners here ? Parley voo frongsay ? 

Frenchman. Oui, monsieur. 

Patrick. Then, would you lind me the loan of a grid- 
iron, if you plase ? I know it 's a liberty I take, sir ; 
but it's only in the regard of bein' cast away; and if 
you plase, sir, parley voo frongsay ? 



264 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Frenchman. Oui, monsieur, oui. 

Patrick. Then would you lincl me the loan of a grid- 
iron, sir, and you '11 obleege me ? 

Frenchman. Monsieur, pardon, monsieur — 

Patricia Then lind me the loan of a gridiron, I say. 

Frenchman. Oui, oui, monsieur. 

Patrick Then lind me the loan of a gridiron, and 
howld your prate. Well, 1 11 give you one chance more, 
you owld thafe ! Are you a Christian, at all, at all? 
Are you a furriner that all the world calls so p'lite ? 
Bad luck to you! do you understand your mother 
tongue ? Parley voo frongsay ? ( Very loud.) Parley 
voo frongsay ? 

Frenchman. Oui, monsieur, oui, oui. 

Patrick. (Screaming.) Thin Unci mc the loan of a 
gridiron ! 

5. AFTER-DINNER SPEECH BY A FRENCHMAN. 

"Milors and Gentlemans — You excellent chairman, M. 
le Baron de Mount-Stuart, he have say to me, ' Make 
de toast.' Den I say to him dat I have no toast to 
make; but lie nudge my elbow ver soft, and say dat 
dere is von toast dat nobody but von Frenchman can 
make proper; and, derefore, wid your kind permission, 
I vill make de toast. ' De brevete is de sole of de feet,' 
as you great philosophere, Dr. Johnson, do say, in dat 
amusing little vork of his, de Pronouncing Dictionnaire ; 
and, derefore, I vill not say ver moch to de point. 

"Ah! mes amis! ven I hear to myself de flowing- 
speech, de oration magnifique of you Lor' Maire, Mon- 
sieur Gobbledown, I feel dat it is von great privilege 
for von dtranger to sit at de same table, and to cat de 
same food, as dat grand, dat majestique man, who are 
de terreur of de voleurs and de brigands of de metrop- 
olis; and who is also, I for to suppose, a halterman 
and de chief of you common scoundrel. Milors and 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 265 

gentlemans, I feel dat I can perspire to no greatare 
honneur dan to be von common scoundrelman myself; 
but, lie'las! dat plaisir are not for me, as I are not free- 
man of your great cite', not von liveryman servant of 
von of you compagnies joint-stock. But I must not 
forget de toast. 

" Milors and Gentlernans ! De immortal Shakispeare 
lie have write, ' De ting of beauty are de joy for never- 
more.' It is de ladies who are de toast. Vat is more 
entrancing dan de charmante smile, de soft voice, de 
vinking eye of de beautiful lady ! It is de ladies who 
do sweeten de cares of life. It is de ladies who are de 
guiding stars of our existence. It is de ladies who do 
cheer but not inebriate, and, derefore, vid all homage 
to dere sex, de toast dat I have to propose is, ' De 
Ladies ! God bless dem all ! ' " 

6. DUNDREARY IN THE COUNTRY. 

1. Diwectly after the season is over in town, I always 
go into the count wy. To tell you the twuth, I hate 
the countwy — it 's so awful dull — there 's such a howid 
noise of nothing all dav; and there is nothing to see 
but gween twees, and cows, and buttercups, and wab- 
bits, and all that sort of cattle — I don't mean exactly 
cattle either, but animals, you know. 

2. And then the earwigs get into your hair-bwushes 
if you leave the bed-woom window open ; and if you 
lie down on the gwass, those howid gwasshoppers, all 
legs, play at leap-frog over your nose, which is howible 
torture, and makes you weady to faint, you know, if it 
is not too far to call for assistance. 

3. And the howid sky is always blue, and everything 
bores you; and they talk about the sunshine, as if there 
was more sunshine in the countwy than in the city — 
which is abthurd, you know — only the countwy sun is 
hotter, and bwings you all out in those howid fweckles, 



2C6 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

and turns you to a fwiteful bwicky color, which the 
wetches call healthy. 

4. As if a healthy man must lose his complexion, 
and become of a bwicky wed color — ha, ha ! — bwicky — 
howid — bwicky wed color — cawoty wed color ! 

7. THE HEATH EX CHINEE. 

Which I wish to remark — 

And my language is plain — 
That for ways that are dark, 
And for tricks that are vain, 
The heathen Chinee is peculiar, 
Which the same I would rise to explain. 

Ah Sin was his name ; 

And I shall not deny, 
In regard to the same, 

What that name might imply; 
But his smile it was pensive and child-like, 
As I frequently remarked to Bill Nye. 

It was August the third, 

And quite soft was the skies — 
Which it might be inferred 
That Ah Sin was likewise; 
Yet he played it that day upon William 
And me in a way I despise. 

Which we had a small game, 

And Ah Sin took a hand; 
It was Euchre. The same 
He did not understand ; 
But he smiled as he sat by the table, 
With a smile that was child-like and bland. 

Yet the cards they were stocked 

In a way that I grieve, 
And my feelings were shocked 

At the state of Nye's sleeve. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 2G7 

Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers, 
And the same with intent to deceive. 

But the hands that were played 

By that heathen Chinee, 
And the points that he made, 
"Were quite frightful to see ; 
Till at last he put down a right bower, 
Which the same Nye had dealt unto me. 

Then I looked up at Nye, 
And he gazed upon me; 
And he rose with a sisjh, 
And said, " Can this be ? 
We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor : ' — 
And he went for that heathen Chinee. 

In the scene that ensued 

I did not take a hand ; 
But the floor it was strewed, 
Like the leaves on the strand, 
With the cards that Ah Sin had been hiding, 
In the srame he "did not understand." 



&* 



In his sleeves, which were long, 

He had twenty-four packs — 
Which was coming it strong, 
Yet I state but the facts ; 
And we found on his nails, which were taper, 
What is frequent in tapers — that's wax. 

Which is why I remark — 

And my language is plain — 
That for ways that are dark, 
And for tricks that are vain, 
The heathen Chinee is peculiar, 
Which the same I am free to maintain. 

Bret Harte 



2G8 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

8. MARK TWAIN AND THE REPORTER. 

"Hoping it's no harm, I've come to interview you. 
I am connected with The Daily Thunderstorm" 

"Come to what?" 

" Interview you." 

"Ah! I see. Yes — yes. Um ! Yes — yes." 

"Are you ready to begin?" 

" Beady," 

" How old are you ? " 

" Nineteen in June." 

" Indeed ! I would have taken you to be thirty-five 
or six. Where were you born ? " 

"In Missouri?" 

" When did you begin to write ? " 

"In 1836." 

"Why, how could that be, if you are only nineteen 
now ? " 

" I do n't know. It does seem curious, somehow." 

"It does indeed. Whom do you consider the most 
remarkable man you ever met ? " 

"Aaron Burr." 

"But you never could have met Aaron Burr, if you 
are only nineteen years — " 

"Now, if you know more about me than I do, what 
do you ask me for ? " 

" Well, it was only a suggestion ; nothing more. How 
did you happen to meet Burr?" 

"Well, I happened to be at his funeral one day; and 
he asked me to make less noise, and — " 

"But, good heavens! If you were at his funeral, he 
must have been dead ; and, if he was dead, how could 
he care whether you made a noise or not ? " 

"I don't know. He was always a particular kind <>t 
a man that way." 

"Still, I don't understand it at all. You say he spoke 
to you, and that he was dead I " 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 269 

" I did n't say be was dead." 

"But wasn't lie dead?" 

"Well, some said he was, some said lie wasn't." 

" What do you think ? " 

" Oh, it was none of my business. It was n't any of 
my funeral." 

"Did you — However, we can never get this matter 
straight. Let me ask about something else. What was 
the date of your birth ? " 

"Monday, October 31, 1693." 

" What ! Impossible ! That would make you a hun- 
dred and eighty years old. How do you account for 
that ? " 

" I do n't account for it at all." 

"But you said at first you were only nineteen, and 
now you make yourself out to be one hundred and 
eighty. It is an awful discrepancy." 

" Why, have you noticed that ? {Shaking hands) Many 
a time it has seemed to me like a discrepancy ; but 
some how I couldn't make up my mind. How quick 
you notice a thing ! " 

"Thank you for the compliment, as far as it goes. 
Had you, or have you, any brothers or sisters ? " 

"Eh ! I — I — I think so — yes — but I don't remember." 

"Well, that is the most extraordinary statement I 
ever heard." 

" Why, what makes you think that ? " 

" How could I think otherwise ? Why, look here ! 
Who is this a picture of on the wall ? Is n't that a 
brother of yours ? " 

"Oh, yes, yes, yes! Now you remind me of it, that 
was a brother of mine. That's William, Bill we called 
him. Poor old Bill!" 

" Why, is he dead, then ? " 

" Ah, well, I suppose so. We never could tell. There 
was a great mystery about it." 



270 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

" That is sad, very sad. He disappeared, then '. ' 

"Well, yes, in a sort of general way. We buried 
him." 

"Burial him! Buried him without knowing whether 
he was dead, or not ? " 

"Oh, no! Not that. He was dead enough." 

" Well, I confess that I can't understand this. If you 
buried him, and you knew he was dead — " 

"No, no! We only thought he was." 

"Oh, I see! He came to life again?" 

"I bet he didn't." 

"Well, I never heard anything like this. Somebody 
was dead. Somebody was buried. Now, where was the 
mystery ? " 

"Ah, that's just it! That's it exactly! You see we 
were twins— defunct and I; and we got mixed in the 
bath-tub when we were only two weeks old, and one 
of us was drowned. But we did n't know which. Some 
think it was Bill; some think it was me." 

"Well, that is remarkable. What do you think?" 

"Goodness knows! I would give whole worlds to 
know. This solemn, this awful mystery has cast a 
gloom over my whole life. But I will tell you a secret 
now, which I never have revealed to any creature before. 
One of us had a peculiar mark, a large mole on the 
back of his left hand; that was me. That child was 
the one that ivas drowned? 

" Very well, then, I do n't see that there is any mys- 
tery about it, after all." 

"You don't ? Well, I do. Anyway, I don't see how 
they could ever have been such a blundering lot as to 
go and bury the wrong child. But, 'sh ! Don't men- 
tion it where the family can hear of it. Heaven knows 
they have heart-breaking troubles enough without adding 

this." 

"Well, I believe I have got material enough for the 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 271 

present; and I am very much obliged to you for the 
pains you have taken. But I was a good deal inter- 
ested in that account of Aaron Burr's funeral. Would 
you mind telling me what particular circumstance it 
was that made you think Burr was such a remarkable 
man ? " 

" Oh, it was a mere trifle ! Not one man in fifty 
would have noticed it at all. When the sermon was 
over, and the procession all ready to start for the 
cemetery, and the body all arranged nice in the hearse, 
he said he wanted to take a last look at the scenery ; 
and so he got up, and rode with the driver" 

9. PRINCE HENRY AND FALSTAFF. 

Falstajf. I call thee coward ? I '11 see thee hanged ere 
I call thee coward : but I would give a thousand pdund 
I could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight 
enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your 
back Call you that backing your friends ? A plague 
upon such backing ! give me them that will face me. — 
Give me a cup of sack: I am a rogue, if I have drunk 
to-day. 

P. Henry. villain! thy lips are scarce wiped since 
thou drank'st last. 

Fal. All's one for that. A plague on all cowards, 
still say I ! 

P. Henry. What 's the matter ? 

Fal. What 's the -matter ? here be four of us have 
taken a thousand pound this morning. 

P. Henry. Where is it, Jack ? where is it ? 

Fed. Where is it ? taken from us, it is ; a hundred 
upon poor four of us. 

P. Henry. What ! a hundred, man ? 

Fed. I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with 
a dozen of them, for two hours together. I have 'scaped 
by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the 



272 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

doublet; four, through the hose; my buckler cut through 
and through ; my sword hacked like a hand-saw. I 
never dealt better since I was a man; all would not 
do. A plague of all cowards ! Let them speak ; if they 
speak more or less than truth, they are villains aud the 
sons of darkness. 

P. Henry. Speak, sirs ; how was it ? 

GaclsJtill. We four, set upon some dozen — 

Fed. Sixteen, at least, my lord. 

Gad. And bound them. 

Peto. No, no, they were not bound. 

Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of 
them , or I am a Jew, else — an Ebrew Jew. 

Gad. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh 
men set upon us — 

Fed. And unbound the rest; and then come in the 
other. 

P. Henry. What ! fought ye with them all ? 

Fal. All? I know not what ye call all; but if I 
fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish : 
if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old 
Jack, then I am no two-legged creature. 

Poins. Pray heaven, you have not murdered some of 
them. 

Fed. Nay, that's past praying for; for I have pep- 
pered two of them ; two I am sure I have paid ; two 
rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I 
tell thee a lie, spit in my face, and call me a horse. 
Four rogues in buckram let drive at me — 

P. Henry. What! four? Thou saidst but two even 
now. 

Fed. Four, Hal; I told thee four. 

Poins. Ay, ay, lie said four. 

Fal. These four came all afront, and mainly thrust 
at me. I made no more ado, but took all their seven 
points on my target thus. 



-SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 273 

P. Henry. Seven ! why, there were but four, even 
now. 

Fed. In buckram ? 

P. Henry. Ay, four in buckram suits. 

Fed. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. 
Dost thou hear me, Hal ? 

P. Henry. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack. 

Fed. Do so, for it is worth listening to. These nine 
in buckram that I told thee of — 

P. Henry. So, two more already. 

Fed. Their points being broken, — began to give me 
ground; but I followed me close, came in foot and 
hand, and with a thought, seven of the eleven I paid. 

P. Henry. monstrous ! eleven buckram men grown 
out of two ! 

Fed. But, as ill luck would have it, three misbegot- 
ten knaves, in Kendal green, came at my back, and let 
drive at me; — for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst 
not see thy hand. 

P. Henry. These lies are like the father that begets 
them ; gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou 
knotty-pated fool; thou greasy tallow-tub. 

Fed. What, art thou mad? art thou mad? is not the 
truth the truth? 

P. Henry. Why, how couldst thou know these men 
in Kendal green, when it was so dark thou couldst not 
see thy hand ? Come, tell us your reason ; what sayest 
thou to this ? Come, your reason, Jack, your reason. 

Fed. What, upon compulsion ? No. Were I at the 
strappado, or all the racks in the -world, I would not 
tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason upon com- 
pulsion ! If reasons were as plenty as oldchocrrics, I 
would give no man a reason upon compulsion. 

P. Henry. I '11 be no longer guilty of this sin. This 
sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-back breaker, 
this huge hill of flesh — 

18 



274 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Fed. Away, you starveling, you eel-skin, you dried 
neat's-tongue, you stdck-fi.sk S for breath to utter what 
is like thee ! you tailor 's yard, you sheath, you bow-case, 
you vile standing tuck — 



Shakespeare. 



Hints about Additional Selections. 

Dialogues, dialect pieces, and humorous selections are 
useful in school for the purpose of breaking up the 
tendency to stiffness, formality, and monotony in read- 
ing. There are times when the ripple of laughter is 
music in the school-room, and when the sunlight of 
humor is needed to dispel the mists of a gloomy day. 
There seems to be no good reason w 7 hy the flashes of 
wit and humor that delight a whole nation should be 
altogether shut out from the school-room, because they 
do not form a part of " classic literature." Though such 
humorous and dialect selections might not seem appro- 
priate for a drill-book like this volume, the wise and 
cheerful teacher will make good use of them, taking 
care, of course, to exclude objectionable selections. 
Teachers will do well to bear in mind that the taste 
of boys and girls from fourteen to eighteen years of 
age is not so critical as that of men and women of 
middle ao;e. 

These extracts should be read at sight, the book being 
passed from hand to hand, and one book serving for 
the whole class. 

Many excellent selections can be found in such books 
as Lowell's "Biglow Papers," Dickens's tt Pickwick Ta- 
pers," Bret Harte's " Poems," Saxe's " roems," Hood's 
" Poems," Mark Twain's books, Monroe's "Humorous 
Pleadings," Garrett's "Speaker's Garland," Shoemaker's 
"Elocutionist's Annual," and many other books of 
" Selections." 



PART III 



PART III. 

MISCELLANEOUS SELECTIONS. 






SECTION I. 
PROSE SELECTIONS. 

1. ELOCUTIONARY TRAINING. 

-1. Elocutionary, training should be begun in early 
life, because then the vocal organs are flexible. It is a 
serious defect in our school methods of instruction, that 
the expressive faculties, comprising feeling, affection, 
emotion, passion, imagination, fancy, association, imita- 
tion, and description, are called so little into action. 
Elocution, when properly taught, calls into active exer- 
cise the expressive faculties, and tends to educate the 
child as a social being.-, 

2. In most ungraded schools in the country, and in 
many city schools, an hour of the closing afternoon of 
ejach week may be usefully devoted to declamation, dia- 
logue, and select readings. It is not advisable to compel 
every child in school to take part in these exercises, for 
there are some who never can become good readers, and 
others who are so awkward and diffident that it is cruel 
to force them upon the school stage with a declamation. 

3. Appropriate selections should at first be made by 

(277) 



278 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

the teacher; for the uncultivated taste of pupils will 
lead them to choose pieces altogether too difficult, or 
utterly worthless when committed to memory. Select 
at times, for the boys, short prose declamations, which, 
when learned, remain in the memory as models of pure 
prose and patriotic feeling. If they learn a poem, let 
it not be one made up of doggerel rhymes, or of pain- 
ful attempts at a low order of wit. 

4. A careful selection of pieces will be the surest 
safeguard against the ranting, tearing, overstrained, the- 
atrical style of florid oratory which so painfully mars 
many school exhibitions. The teacher can take odd 
moments at the intermission, or recess, or before and 
after school, for the purpose of hearing rehearsals, and 
giving special instructions. 

5. Teachers should instruct pupils in the elements of 
gesture. Gestures spring naturally from the close sym- 
pathy of mind and body. A look of the eye, an 
expression of the countenance, a movement of the hand, 
often convey more than words can express. The prin- 
ciples of gesture may be easily learned from any one of 
several excellent works on elocution. 

6. The reading and recitation of poetry by girls is an 
indispensable part of the education of woman, as one 
of the most efficient modes of discipline for the taste 
and imagination. Many of the most exquisite passages 
of the poets can never be fully appreciated until repeated 
by the voice of woman. 

7. It requires no close observer to perceive the effects 
of poetry on the youthful mind. Childhood delights in 
the melody of verse, and is pleased with its flowing 
harmony of sound. In poetry are embodied some of 
the most beautiful lessons of morality ; and they are 
presented in a manner which arrests the attention and 
impresses the character. What teacher has not seen the 
dull eye kindle, the vacant countenance take expression, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 279 

the face glow with emotion, and the whole boy become 
lost in the sentiment of his declamation ? 

8. Introduce elocution into school to cultivate a taste 
for reading, to exercise and strengthen memory, to 
awaken feeling, to excite imagination, and to train those 
who are to enter the professions, to become graceful 
and pleasing speakers. Introduce it as a relief from 
study, a pleasing recreation, and a source of intellectual 
enjoyment. Introduce it as a part of the aesthetic edu- 
cation so peculiarly appropriate for woman. Make it 
as a part of the education of man as an expressive being. 

2. GOOD HEADING. 

1. There is one accomplishment, in particular, which I 
would earnestly recommend to you. Cultivate assidu- 
ously the ability to read well. I stop to particularize 
this, because it is a thing so very much neglected, and 
because it is such an elegant and charming accomplish- 
ment. Where one person is really interested by music, 
twenty are pleased by good reading. "Where one person 
is capable of becoming a skillful musician, twenty may 
become good readers. Where there is one occasion suit- 
able for the exercise of musical talent, there are twenty 
for that of good reading. 

2. The culture of the voice necessary for reading well, 
gives a delightful charm to the same voice in conversa- 
tion. Good reading is the natural exponent and vehicle 
of all good things. It seems to bring dead authors to 
life again, and makes us sit down familiarly with the 
great and gdod of all ages. 

3. What a fascindtion there is in really good reading ! 
What a pbvjer it gives one ! In the hospital, in the 
chamber of the Invalid, in the nursery, in the domestic 
and in the social circle, among chosen friends and com- 
panions, how it enables you to minister to the amixse- 



280 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

ment, the comfort, the pleasure of dear ones as no other 
art or accomplishment ca?i. No instrument of man's 
devising can reach the heart as does that most w6n 
fid instrument, the liftman voice. 

4. If you would double the value of all your other 
acquisitions, if you would add immeasurably to your 
6wn enjoyment and to your power of promoting the 
enjoyment of others, cultivate, with incessant care, this 
divine gift. No music below the skies is equal to that 
of pure, silvery speech from the lips of a man or woman 
of high culture. j0HN s . IIvET . 

3. THE MUSIC OF THE HUMAN VOICE. 

1. Willis, in his essay on " unwritten music," has placed 
the appropriate sound of the female voice among the 
most beautiful of its forms ; and there is, unquestiona- 
bly, a fine analogy between the sound of the running 
brook, the note of the wood-bird, the voice of a happy 
child, the low breathing of a flute, and the clear, soft 
tone of a woman's voice, when it utters the natural 
music of home — the accents of gentleness and love. 

2. To a well-tuned ear, there is a rich, deep melody 
in the distinctive bass of the male voice, in its subdued 
tones. But the key-note of poetry seems to have been 
lent to woman. On the ear of infancy and childhood, 
her voice was meant to fall as a winning prelude to all 
the other melodies of nature ; the human nerves are 
attuned, accordingly, to the breath of her voice; and. 
through life, the chords of the heart respond most 
readily to her touch. 

3. Yet how often is this result impeded by the pro- 
cesses of artificial culture; by the over-excitement of 
mind and nerve, attending excessive application; by that 
unwise neglect of health and healthful action, which 
dims the eye and deadens the ear to beauty, and robs 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 281 

life of the joyous and sympathetic spirit which is native 
to childhood ; and which, otherwise, would ever be gush- 
ing forth in notes of gladness and endearment, the 
physical not less than the moral charm of human 
utterance ! 

4. There are beautiful exceptions, undoubtedly, to this 
general fact of ungainly habit. But the ground of just 
complaint is, that there is no provision made in our 
systems of education for the cultivation of one of 
woman's peculiar endowments — an attractive voice. Our 
girls do not come home to us. after their period of 
school life, qualified to read with effect in their own 
language. There is wanting in their voices that adap- 
tation of tone to feeling, which is the music of the 
heart in reading ; there is wanting that clear, impressive 
style which belongs to the utterance of cultivated taste 
and judgment, and which enhances every sentiment by 
appropriate emphasis and pause ; there is even a want 
of that distinct articulation which alone can make sound 
the intelligible medium of thought, prof. William Russell. 

4. THE AET OF BEADING. 

1. The art of reading well is an accomplishment that 
all desire to possess, many think they have already, 
and that a few set about to acquire. These, believing 
their power is altogether in their genius, are, after a 
few lessons from an elocutionist, disappointed at not 
becoming themselves at once masters of the art ; and 
with the restless vanity of their belief, abandon the 
study for some new subject of trial and failure. Such 
cases of infirmity result in part from the wavering 
character of the human tribe ; but they chiefly arise 
from defects in the usual course of instruction. 

2. Go to some of our colleges and universities, and 
observe how the art of speaking is not taught there. 



282 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

See a boy of but fifteen years, with no want of youth- 
ful diffidence, and not without a craving desire to 
learn, sent upon a stage, pale and choking with appre- 
hension ; being forced into an attempt to do that, 
without instruction, which he came purposely to learn ; 
and furnishing amusement to his classmates, by a 
pardonable awkwardness, that should be punished, in 
the person of his pretending but neglectful preceptor, 
with little less than scourging. 

3. Then visit a conservatorio of music; observe there 
the elementary outset, the orderly task, the masterly 
discipline, the unwearied superintendence, and the in- 
cessant toil to reach the utmost accomplishment in the 
Singing- Voice ; and afterwards do not be surprised that 
the pulpit, the senate, the bar, and the chair of medical 
professorship, are filled with such abominable drawlers, 
mouthers, mumblers, clutterers, squeakers, chanters, and 
mongers in monotony ; nor that the Schools of Singing- 
are constantly sending abroad those great instances of 
vocal wonder who triumph along the crowded resorts 
of the world ; who contribute to the halls of fashion 
and wealth their most refined source of gratification ; 
who sometimes quell the pride of rank by a momentary 
sensation of envy ; and who draw forth the admiration 
and receive the crowning applause of the prince and sage. 

4. The high accomplishments in elocution are sup- 
posed to be universally the unacquired gifts of genius, 
and to consist of powers and graces beyond the roach 
of art. So seem the plainest services of arithmetic to 
a savage; and so, to the slave, seem all the ways of 
music which modern art has so accurately penned, as 
to time, and tune, and momentary grace. Ignorance 
knows not what has been done; indolence thinks nothing 
can be done ; and both uniting, borrow from the abused 
eloquence of poetry an aphorism to justify supineness 
of inquiry. dr. Rush. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 283 

5. ON LEARNING BY HEART. 

1. Till he has fairly tried it, I suspect a reader does 
not know how much he would gain from committing to 
memory passages of real excellence ; precisely because 
he does not know how much he overlooks when merely 
reading. Learn one true poem by heart, and see if 
you do not find it so. Beauty after beauty will reveal 
itself, in chosen phrase, or happy music, or noble sug- 
gestion, otherwise undreamed of. It is like looking at 
one of Nature's wonders through a microscope. 

2. Again : how much in such a poem that you really 
did feel admirable and lovely on a first reading, passes 
away, if you do not give it a further and much better 
reading ! — passes away utterly, like a sweet sound, or 
an image on the lake, which the first breath of wind 
dispels. If you could only fix that image, as the pho- 
tographers do theirs, so beautifully, so perfectly ! And 
you can do so ! Learn it by heart, and it is yours for 
ever ! 

3. I have said, a true poem; for naturally men will 
choose to leam poetry — from the beginning of time they 
have done so. To immortal verse the memory gives a 
willing, a joyous, and a lasting home. Some prose, 
however, is poetical, is poetry, and altogether worthy 
to be learned by heart; and the learning is not so very 
difficult. It is not difficult or toilsome to learn that 
which pleases us ; and the labor, once given, is forgot- 
ten, while the result remains. 

4. Poems, and noble extracts, whether of verse or of 
prose, once so reduced into possession and rendered 
truly our own, may be to us a daily pleasure-; — better 
far than a whole library unused. They may come to us 
in our dull moments, to refresh us as with spring flowers ; 
in our selfish musings, to win us by pure delight from 
the tyranny of foolish castle-building, self-gratulations, 



284 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

and mean anxieties. They may be with us in the work- 
shop, in the crowded street, by the fireside ; sometimes, 
perhaps, on pleasant hill-sides, or by sounding shores ; — 
noble friends and companions — our own ! never intru- 
sive, ever at hand, coming at our call. 

5. For those, in particular, whose leisure time is short, 
I believe there could not be a better expenditure of 
time than deliberately giving an occasional hour — it 
requires no more — to committing to memory chosen 
passages from great authors. If the mind were thus 
daily nourished with a few choice words of the best 
English poets and writers ; if the habit of learning by 
heart were to become so general, that, as a matter of 
course, any person presuming to be educated might be 
expected to be equipped with a few good pieces, — I be- 
lieve that it would lead, much more than the mere 
sound of it suggests, to the diffusion of the best kind 
of literature and to the right appreciation of it; and 
that men would not long rest satisfied with knowing a 
few stock pieces. 

C. The only objection I can conceive to what I have 
been saying is, that a relish for higher literature may 
be said to be the result of cultivation, and to belong 
only to the. few. But I do not admit that even the 
higher literature must belong only to the few. Poetry 
is, in the main, essentially catholic — addressed to all 
men ; and though some poetry requires knowledge and 
culture, much, and that the noblest, needs only natural 
feeling, and common experience. Such poetry, taken in 
moderation, followed with genuine good-will, shared in 
common, will be intelligible and delightful to most meq 
who take the trouble to be students at all, and ever 
more and more so. 

7. Perhaps, also, there may be a fragment of truth in 
what Charles Lamb has said — that any spouting M wjthe*8 
and blows upon a line passage;" that there is no enjoy- 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 285 

ing it after it has been "pawed about by declamatory 
boys and men." But surely there is a reasonable habit 
of recitation as well as an unreasonable one ; there is 
no need of declamatory pawing. To abandon all recita- 
tion, is to give up a custom which has unquestionably 
given delight and instruction to all the races of man- 
kind. If our faces are set against vain display, and set 
towards rational enjoyment of one another, we need not 
fear that our social evenings will be marred by an oc- 
casional recitation. And, moreover, it is not for recit- 
ing's sake that I chiefly recommend this most faithful 
form of reading — learning bv heart. 

8. I come back, therefore, to this, that learning by 
heart is a good thing, and that it is neglected among us. 
Why is it neglected ? Partly because of our indolence ; 
but partly, I believe, because we do not sufficiently con- 
sider that it is a good thing, and needs to be taken in 
hand. We need to be reminded of it. I here remind 
yon. Like a town-crier, ringing my bell, I would say 
to you, " Oyez, oyez ! Lost, stolen, or strayed, a good 
ancient practice — the good ancient practice of learning 
by heart. Every finder shall be handsomely rewarded." 

9. If you ask, " What shall I learn ? " the answer is, 
do as you do with tunes — begin with what you sincerely 
like best, what you would most wish to remember, what 
you w 7 ould most enjoy saying to yourself or repeating 
to another. You will soon find the list inexhaustible. 
Then "keeping up " is easy. Every one has spare ten 
minutes : one of the problems of life is how r to employ 
them usefully. You may well spend some in looking 
after and securing this good property you have won. 

LrSHINGTOX. 



286 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

6. SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 

1. The influence of well-selected books in a school is 
second only to that of the teacher; and in many in- 
stances the information, self-gleaned by the pupils, is 
the most valuable part of a common-school education. 

2. A teacher may fail in the discharge of duty ; but 
the golden grains of thought gleaned from good books 
will spring up in the youthful minds and yield their 
fruit, just as certainly as the fertile soil of our beauti- 
ful valleys rewards the toil of the husbandman with a 
bountiful harvest. 

3. The object and aim of the public school should be 
to give children a thirst for information, a taste for 
reading ; to make them alive to knowledge ; to set them 
out on the path of self-education through life. Why 
teach them to read at all, if books be not afterwards 
furnished for them to read ? 

4. Xot many years ago, in one of the obscure towns 
of Massachusetts, there lived a farmer's boy who " went 
to a common school" in the winter, and worked on the 
farm in summer. The books of a little town library 
fell into his hands ; he devoured them, and hungered 
for more. He grew to be a man, and was acknowledged 
by all to be the most distinguished American educator 
of his time. 

5. Every public school in our country is a debtor to 
Horace Mann. He thus graphically sums up the advan- 
tage of a school library : " Xow no one thing will 
contribute more to intelligent reading in our schools 
than a well-selected library ; and, through intelligence, 
the library will also contribute to rhetorical ease, grace, 
and expressiveness. Wake up a child to a consciousness 
of power and beauty, and you might as easily confine 
Hercules to a distaff, or bind Apollo to a tread-mill, as 
to confine his spirit within the mechanical round of a 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 287 

school-room where such mechanism still exists. Let a 
child read and understand such stories as the friendship 
of Damon and Pythias, the integrity of Aristides, the 
fidelity of Eegulus, the purity of Washington, the invinci- 
ble perseverance of Franklin, and he will think differently 
and act differently all the days of his remaining life. 

6. "Let boys or girls of sixteen years of age read an 
intelligible and popular treatise on astronomy and geol- 
ogy, and from that day new heavens will bend over their 
heads, and a new earth will spread out beneath their feet. 
A mind accustomed to go rejoicing over the splendid 
regions of the material universe, or to luxuriate in the 
richer worlds of thought, can never afterwards read like 
a wooden machine — a thing of cranks and pipes — to say 
nothing of the pleasures and the utility it will realize." 



7. POEMS. 

1. Now I tell you a poem must be kept and used, 
like a meerschaum or a violin. A poem is just as 
porous as the meerschaum — the more porous it is, the 
better. I mean to say that a genuine poem is capable 
of absorbing an indefinite amount of the essence of our 
own humanity — its tenderness, its heroism, its regrets, 
its aspirations — so as to be gradually stained through 
with a divine secondary color derived from ourselves. 
So, you see, it must take time to bring the sentiment 
of a poem into harmony with our nature by staining 
ourselves through every thought and image our being 
can penetrate. 

2. Then, again, as to the mere music of a new poem ; 
why, who can expect anything more from that than 
from the music of a violin fresh from the maker's 
hands ? Now you know very well that there are no 
less than fifty-eight different pieces in a violin. These 



288 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

pieces are strangers to each other, and it takes a cen- 
tury more or less, to make them thoroughly acquainted. 
At last they learn to vibrate in harmony, and the in- 
strument becomes an organic whole, as it were a great 
seed capsule, which had grown from a garden-bed in 
Cremona, or elsewhere. Besides, the wood is juicy and 
full of sap for fifty years or so, but at the end of iiity 
or a hundred more gets tolerably dry and comparatively 

resonant. c 

3 Don't you see that all this is just as true ot a 
poem ? Counting each word as a piece, there are more 
pieces in an average copy of verses than in a violin. 
The poet has forced all these words together, and fast- 
ened them, and they don't understand it at first But 
let the poem be repeated aloud, and murmured oyer in 
the mind's muffled whisper often enough, and at length 
the parts become knit together in such absolute soli- 
darity that you could not change a syllable without the 
whole world's crying out against you for meddling with 
the harmonious fabric. houuk 

8. SCROOGE AND MAULEY. 

1 Marlev was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt 
whatever about that. The register of his burial was 
si<med by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and 
the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it, And Scrooges 
name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to 
put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door- 

nail. T ,. 

2 Mind' I don't mean to say that I know, ot mj 
own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about 
■x door-nail. I might have been inclined niyselt, to 
regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery 
in- the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 289 

the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb 
it, or the country 's done for. You will therefore per- 
mit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead 
as a door-nail. 

3. Scrooge knew he was dead ? Of course he did. 
How could it be otherwise ? Scrooge and he were 
partners for I do n't know how many years. Scrooge 
was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole 
assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and 
sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dread- 
fully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an ex- 
cellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, 
and solemnized it with an undoubted bargain. 

4. Scrooge* never painted out old Marley's name. 
There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse 
door : Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as 
Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the 
business called Scrooge, Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, 
but he answered to both names. It was all the same 
to him. 

5. Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- 
stone, Scrooge ! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scrap- 
ing, clutching, covetous old sinner ! Hard and sharp 
as flint from which no steel had ever struck out gen- 
erous fire ; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an 
oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, 
nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened 
his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and 
spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime 
was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry 
chin. He carried his own low temperature always 
about with him ; he iced his office in the dog-days ; and 
didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas. 

6. External heat and cold had little influence on 
Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather 
chill him. "No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no 

19 



290 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no 
pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather did n't 
know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, 
and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over 
him in only one respect. They often " came down 
handsomely," and Scrooge never did. 

7. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, 
with gladsome looks, " My dear Scrooge, how are you ? 
When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored 
him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it 
was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life 
inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. 
Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him ; and 
when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners 
into doorways and up courts; and then would wag 
their tails as though they said, "No eye at all is better 
than an evil eye, dark master ! " 

8. But what did Scrooge care ! It was the very 
thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded 
paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its 
distance, was what the knowing ones called " nuts " to 
Scrooge. 

.9. Once upon a time — of all the good days in the 
year, on Christmas eve — old Scrooge sat busy in his 
counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather : 
foggy withal ; and he could hear the people in the 
court outside go wheezing up and down, beating their 
hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon 
the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks 
had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already — 
it had not been light all day — and candles were flaring 
in the windows of the neighboring offices, like ruddy 
smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came 
pouring in at every chink and key-hole, and was so 
dense without, that although the court was of the nar- 
rowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 291 

see the clingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring 
everything, one might have thought that Nature lived 
hard by, and was brewing on a large scale. 

10. The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open, 
that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a 
dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying 
letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's 
fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one 
coal. But he could not replenish it, for Scrooge kept 
the coal-box in his own room ; and so surely as the 
clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that 
it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore, the 
clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm 
"himself at the candle ; in which effort, not being a man 
of a strong imagination, he failed. 

11. "A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" 
cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's 
nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was 
the first intimation Scrooge had of his approach. 

"Bah!" said Scrooge: "humbug!" 
" Christmas a humbug, uncle ! You do n't mean that, 
I am sure 1 " 

12. "I do. Out upon merry Christmas ! What 's 
Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills 
without money ; a time for finding yourself a year 
older, and not an hour richer ; a time for balancing 
your books and having every item in 'em through a 
round dozen of months presented dead against you? 
If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with 
' Merry Christmas ' on his lips should be boiled with his 
own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through 
his heart. He should ! " 

" Uncle ! " 

13. " Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way, and 
let me keep it in mine." 

" Keep it ! But you do n't keep it." 



292 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

" Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it do 
you! Much good it has ever done you!" 

14. " There are many things from which I might 
have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare 
say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have 
always thought of Christmas time, when it has come 
round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred 
origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from 
that — as a good time ; a kind, forgiving, charitable, 
pleasant time ; the ouly time I know of, in the long 
calendar of the year, when men and women seem by 
one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to 
think of people below them as if they really were fel- 
low-travelers to the grave, and not another race of 
creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, 
uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver 
in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and 
will do me good ; and I say, God bless it ! " 

The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. 

15. " Let me hear another sound from you" said 
Scrooge, "and you 11 keep your Christmas by losing 
your situation ! You 're quite a powerful speaker, sir," 
he added, turning to his nephew. " I wonder you do n't 
■go into Parliament." 

" Do li't be angry, uncle. Come ! Dine with us to- 
morrow." 

16. Scrooge said that he would see him — yes, indeed 
he did. He went the whole length of the expression, 
and said that he would see him in that extremity first. 

"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?" 
" Why did you get married ? " 
" Because I fell in love." 

17. "Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as 
.if. that were the only one thing in the world more rid- 
iculous than a merry Christmas. "Good-afternoon!" 

" .Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before 



school elocution: 293: 

that happened. Why give it as a reason for not coming 
now ? " 

" Good-afternoon ! " 

" I want nothing from you ; I ask nothing of you ; 
why cannot we be friends ? " 

" Good-afternoon ! " 

18. "I am sorry, with all my heart, to find, you so 
resolute. We have never had any quarrel to which I 
have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage 
to Christmas, and I '11 keep my Christmas humor to the 
last. So a merry Christmas, uncle ! " 

" Good-afternoon ! " 

" And. a happy New Year ! " 

" Good-afternOOn ! " Dickens's " Christmas Carol." 



9. DEFENSE OF POETEY 

1. We believe that poetry, far from injuring society, 
is one- of the great instruments of its refinement and 
exaltation. It lifts the mind above ordinary life, gives 
it a respite from depressing cares, and awakens the con- 
sciousness of its affinity with what is pure and noble. 
In its legitimate and highest efforts, it has the same 
tendency and aim with. Christianity; that is, to spir- 
itualize our nature. 

2. True, poetry has been made the instrument of vice, 
the pander of bad passions ; but when genius thus 
stoops, it dims its fires, and parts with much of its. 
power ; and even when Poetry is enslaved to licentious- 
ness and misanthropy j she can not wholly forget her 
true vocation. Strains of p&re feeling, touches of tender-, 
ness, images of innocent happiness, sympathies with what 
is gdod in our nature, bursts of scorn or indignation, 
at the hollowness of the world, passages true to our. 
moral nature, often escape in an immoral .work, and_ 



294 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

show us how hard it is for a gifted spirit to divorce 
itself wholly from what is good. 

3. Poetry has a natural alliance with our best affec- 
tions. It delights in the beauty and sublimity of outward 
nature and of the sbul. It indeed portrays with terrible 
energy the excesses of the passions, but they are passions 
which show a mighty nature, which are full of pbwer, 
which command dive, and excite a deep though shudder- 
ing sympathy. 

4. Its great tendency and purpose is to carry the mind 
beyond and above the beaten, dusty, we'ary walks of ordi- 
nary life ; to lift it into a purer element, and to breathe 
into it more profound and generous embtion. It reveals 
to us the Idvelincss of nature, brings back the freshness 
of youthful feeling, revives the relish of simple plkisi 
keeps unquenehed the enthusiasm which warmed the 
spring-time of our being, refines youthful Ibvc, strength- 
ens our interest in human ndture by vivid delineations 
of its tenderest and loftiest feelings, spreads our sympa- 
thies over all classes of society, knits us by new ties with 
universal being, and, through the brightness of its pro- 
phetic visions, helps faith to lay hold on the future life. 

5. We are aware that it is objected to poetry that it 
gives vjrdng views and excites false expectations of life, 
peoples the mind with shadows and illiisions, and builds 
up imagination on the ruins of wisdom. That there Is 
a wisdom against which poetry wars— the wisdom of the 
shiscs, which makes physical comfort and gratification 
the supreme good, and wealth the chief interest of lift- — 
we do not deny; nor do we deem it the least service 
which poetry renders to mankind, that it redeems them 
from the thralldom of this earth-born prudence. 

6. But, passing over this topic, we would observe that 
the complaint against poetry, as abounding in ilhUion 
and deception, is, in the main, grbundles*. In many 
p>bcms there is more of truth than in many histories and 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 295 

philosophic theories. The fictions of genius are often the 
vehicles of the sublimcst verities, and its flashes often 
open new regions of thought, and throw new light on 
the mysteries of our being. In poetry, when the letter is 
falsehood, the spirit is often profoundest wisdom. 

7. And if trllth thus dwells in the boldest fictions of 
the poet, much more may it be expected in his delinea- 
tions of life ; for the present life, which is the first stage 
of the immortal mind, abounds in the materials of poetry, 
and it is the high office of the bard to detect this divine 
element among the grosser labors and pleasures of our 
earthly being. The present life is ndt wholly prosaic, 
precise, tame, and finite. To the gifted eye it abounds 
in the poetic. 

8. The affections, which spread beyond ourselves and 
stretch far into futiirity ; the workings of mighty passions, 
which seem to arm the soul with an almost superhuman 
energy ; the innocent and irrepressible joy of infancy; 
the bloom, and buoyancy, and dazzling hopes of youth; 
the throbbing of the heart, when it first wakes to love, 
and dreams of a happiness too vast for earth; woman, 
with her beauty, and grace, and gentleness, and fullness 
of fueling, and depth of affection, and blushes of purity, 
and the tones and looks which only a mother's heart can 
inspire — these are all poetical. 

9. It is not trlXe that the poet paints a life which 
does not exist. He only extracts and concentrates, as it 
we're, life's ethereal essence, arrests and condenses its 
volatile fragrance, brings together its scattered beauties, 
and prolongs its more refined but evanescent joys. And 
in this he does well ; for it is good to feel that life is 
not wholly usurped by cares for subsistence and physical 
gratifications, but admits, in measures which may be 
indefinitely enlarged, sentiments and delights worthy of 
a higher being. channino. 



296 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

10. FALSTAFF. 

[This extract affords an example of " humorous style" with prevail- 
tug circumflex inflections.] 

1. There is something cordial in a fat man. Every- 
body likes him, and he likes everybody. Food does a fat 
man good; it clings to him; it fructifies upon him; he 
swells nobly out, and fills a generous space in life. A 
fat man, therefore, almost in virtue of being a fat man, 
is, 'per se, a popular man; and he commonly deserves his 
popularity. 

2. A fat man feels his position solid in the world ; 
he knows that his being is cognizable ; lie knows that 
he has a marked pldce in the universe, and that he need 
take no extraordinary pains to advertise mankind that 
lie is among them ; he knows that he is in no danger 
of beinu; overlooked. 

3. A fat man is the nearest to that most perfect of 
figures, a mathematical sphere ; a tMn man, to that most 
limited of conceivable dimensions, a simjrfe line. A fat 
man is a being of harmonious volume, and holds relations 
to the material universe in every direction ; a thin man 
has nothing but length; a tMn man, in fact, is but the 
continuation of a point. 

4. Well then might Falstaff exult in his sue; well 
might lie mock at the prince, and his other lean contem- 
poraries ; and, accordingly, when he would address the 
prince in terms the most degrading, he heaps epithet 
upon epithet, each expressive of the utmost !<<><i/ic<s. 
" Away, you starveling" he exclaims ; " you Sel-skin ; you 
dried neat's- tongue; you stdcJc-fish. O for breath to utter 
what is like thee ! " 

5. Falstaff was an tpimre', but no gldtton. He was 
not a great eater, for his bill contained a halfpenny? 
worth of bread to an intolerable quantity of sdek. And 
although Falstaff was a large drl/ikcr, he was no inelrriate. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 297 

And here we conceive a consummate art in Shakespeare, 
who sustains Falstaff throughout in our intellectual 
respect. . . . 

6. As to lies, they were in the way of his vocation. 
The highest stretch of imagination could not even sus- 
pect him of veracity ; and if he had any chipes, they were 
strongly in love with deception. His lies, too, were the 
lies of a professed and known wit; they were designed 
only for hidicrous effect, and generally were little more 
than comic exaggerations. In the events at Gad's hill, 
and those that immediately follow them, there is an 
epitome of the vjhole character of Falstaff; hut there is, 
at the same time, an evident design on the part of the 
poet, to bring out his peculiarities with grotesque extrav- 
agance, and to produce the broadest and the most comic 
result. . . . 

7. Falstaff has both wit and humor ; but more of wit, 
I think, than humor. Between wit and humor there is 
an evident distinction, but to submit the distinction to 
minute criticism would require more time than we can 
spare ; and, after all, it is more easy to feel than to 
explain it. Wit implies thought ; humor, sensibility. Wit 
deals with ideas; humor, with dctions and with mdn- 
ners. Wit may be a thing of pure imagination; humor 
involves sentiment and character. Wit is an essence; 
humor, an incarnation. 

8. Wit and humor, however, have some qualities in 
common. Both develop unexpected analogies; both in- 
clude the principles of contrast and assimilation; both 
detect inward resemblances amidst Eternal differences, 
and the result of both is pleasurable surprise; the sur- 
prise from wit excites admiration, the surprise from 
humor stimulates merriment, and produces laughter. 

9. Falstaff's wit is rich as his imagination ; as prolific 
as it is felicitous. It is pungent, copious, brilliant in 
expression, and decisive in effect. It never falls short of 



298 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

its aim, and never misses it. And this rare vM is wholly 
devoted to the ludicrous. Bmn Giles. 



11. WEALTH. 

1. As soon as a stranger is introduced into any com- 
pany, one of the first questions which all wish to have 
answered, is, How does that man get his living ? And 
with reason. He is no whole man until he knows how 
to earn a blameless livelihood. Society is barbarous, 
until every industrious man can get his living without 
dishonest customs. 

2. Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a pro- 
ducer. He fails to make his place good in the world, 
unless he not only pays his debt, but also adds some- 
thing to the common wealth. Nor can lie do justice 
to his genius, without making some larger demand oil 
the world than a bare subsistence. He is by constitu- 
tion expensive, and needs to be rich. 

3. Wealth has its source in applications of the mind 
to nature, from the rudest strokes of spade and ax, 
up to the last secrets of art. Intimate ties subsist be- 
tween thought and all production ; because a better or- 
der is equivalent to vast amounts of brute labor. The 
forces and the resistances are Nature's, but the mind 
acts in bringing things from where they abound to where 
they are wanted ; in wise combining ; in directing the 
practice of the useful arts, and in the creation of finer 
values, by fine art, by eloquence, by song, or the repro- 
ductions of memory. 

4. Wealth is in applications of mind to nature; and 
the art of getting rich consists not in industry, much 
less in saving, but in a better order, in timeliness, in 
being at the right spot. One man has stronger arms. 
or longer legs; another sees by the course of streams, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 299 

and growth of markets, where land will be wanted, 
makes a clearing to the river, goes to sleep, and wakes 
up rich. Steam is no stronger now, than it was a hun- 
dred years ago; but is put to better use. A clever 
fellow was acquainted with the expansive force of steam ; 
he also saw the wealth of wheat and grass rotting in 
Michigan. Then he cunningly screws on the steam-pipe 
to the wheat crop. Puff now, O Steam ! The steam 
puffs and expands as before, but this time it is dragging 
all Michigan at its back to hungry New York and 
hungry England. 

5. Coal lay in ledges under the ground since the 
flood, until a laborer with pick and windlass brings it 
to the surface. We may well call it black diamonds. 
Every basket is power and civilization. For coal is a 
portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to 
Labrador and the polar circle : and it is the means of 
transporting itself whithersoever it is wanted. Watt 
and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their 
secret, that a half ounce of coal will clravj two tons a 
mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make 
Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comfort brings 
its industrial power. 

6. When the farmer's peaches are taken from under 
the tree, and carried into town, they have a new look, 
and a hundredfold value over the fruit which grew on 
the same bough, and lies fulsomely on the ground. 
The craft of the merchant is this bringing a thing from 
where it abounds, to where it is costly. 

7. Wealth begins in a tight roof that keeps the rain 
and wind out; in a good pump that yields you plenty 
of sweet water; in two suits of clothes, so to change 
your dress when you are wet; in dry sticks to burn; 
in a good double-wick lamp ; and three meals ; in a 
horse, or a locomotive, to cross the land; in a boat to 
cross the sea; in tools to work with; in books to read; 



300 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

and so, in giving, on all sides, by tools and auxiliaries, 
the greatest possible extension to our powers, as if it 
added feet, and hands, and eyes, and blood, length to 
the day, and knowledge, and good-will. 

8. Wealth begins with these articles of necessity. And 
here we must recite the iron law which Nature thunders 
in these northern climates. First, she requires that each 
man should feed himself. If, happily, his fathers have 
left him no inheritance, he must go to work, and by 
making his wants less, or his gains more, he must draw 
himself out of that state of pain and insult in which 
she forces the beggar to lie. She gives him no rest 
until this is done. She starves, taunts, and torments 
him, takes away warmth, laughter, sleep, friends, and 
daylight, until he has fought his way to his own loaf. 
Then, less peremptorily, but still with sting enough, 
she, urges him to the acquisition of such things as be- 
long to him. Every warehouse and shop-window, every 
fruit-tree, every thought of every hour, opens a new 
want to him, which it concerns his power and dignity 

tO gratllV. Emerson's Essays. 



12. THE ASTEOXOMEirS VISIOX. 

[This extract, translated and paraphrased by Professor Mitchell, is 
characterized by solemnity and sublimity, awe and wonder. It should 
be read with subdued force, median stress, orotund quality, low pitch.] 

1. God called up from dreams a man into the 

bide of heaven, saying, " Come thou hither and see the 
glory of my house." And to the servants that stood 
around his throne he said, " Take him, ami undress him 
from his robes of flesh: cleanse his vision, and put a 
new breath into his nostrils: only touch not with any 
change ■ his human heart — the heart that weeps and 
trhnbles" ■ 

2. It was done : and, with a mighty angel for his 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 301 

guide, the man stood ready for his infinite voyage; and 
from the terraces of heaven, without sound or farewell, 
at once they wheeled away into Endless space. Some- 
times with the solemn flight of angel icing they fled 
through infinite realms of darkness, through wildernesses 
of death, that divided the worlds of life; sometimes 
they swept over frontiers that were quickening under 
prophetic motions from God. 

3. Then from a distance that is counted only in 
heaven, light dawned for a time through a sleepy film ; 
by unutterable pace, the light swept to them, they, by 
unutterable pace, to the light. In a moment, the rushing 
of planets was upon them : in a moment, the Mazing of 
silns was around them. 

4. Then came eternities of tivllight, that revealed, but 
were not revealed. On the right hand and on the left 
toward mighty constellations, that by self-repetitions and 
answers from afar, that by counter-positions, built up 
triumphal gates, whose architraves, whose archways — 
horizontal, upright — rested, rose at altitude, by spans 
that seemed ghostly from infinitude. Without measure 
were the architraves, past number were the drchivays, 
beyond memory the gates. 

5. Within were stairs that scaled the eternities below ; 
above was below — below was above, to the man stripped 
of gravitating body: depth was swallowed up in height 
insurmountable, height was swallowed up in depth un- 
fathomable. Suddenly, as thus they rode from infinite 
to infinite, suddenly, as thus they tilted over abysmal 
worlds, a mighty cry arose — that systems more mysteri- 
ous, that worlds more billowy, — other heights and other 
depths, — were coming, were nearing, were at hand. 

6. Then the man sighed, and stdoped, shuddered, and 
wept. His overladen heart uttered itself in tears, and 
he said: " Angel', I will go no farther. For the spirit 
of man dcheth with this infinity. Insufferable is the 



302 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

glory of Gbd. Let me lie down in the grave and hide 
me from the prosecution of the Infinite; for end, I see, 
there is none" 

7. And from all the listening stars that shone around 
issued a choral voice: " The man speaks truly: iw& 
there is none, that ever yet we heard of." " ^iwf j s 
there none ?>" the angel solemnly demanded. " Is there 
indeed no £nd ? — and is this the sorrow that hills you ? " 
But no «?(te answered, that he might answer himself. 
Then the a?i#c£ threw up his glorious hands to the 
heaven of heavens, saying, " End' is there none to the 
universe of Gbd. L6 1 also, there is no beginning." 



13. EDUCATION. 

1. Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and 
fortune of every one of us would, one day or other, 
depend upon his winning or losing a game at chess. 
Do n't you think that we should all consider it to be a 
primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves 
of the pieces ; to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen 
eye for all the means of giving and getting out of check ? 
Do you not think that we should look with a disappro- 
bation amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed 
his son, or the state which allowed its members, to grow 
up without knowing a pawn from a knight } 

2. Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that 
the life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of 
us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with 
us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules 
of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than 
chess. It is a game which has been played for untold 
ages, every man and woman of us being one of the 
two players in a game of his or her own. The chess- 
board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 303 

universe, the rules of the game are what we call the 
laws of Nature. 

3. The player on the other side is hidden from us. 
We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. 
But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks 
a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. 
To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, 
with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the 
strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays 
ill is checkmated — without haste, but without remorse. 

4. Well, what I mean by Education is learning the 
rules of this mighty game. In other words, education 
is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature, 
under which name I include not merely things and their 
forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of 
the affections and of the will into an earnest and loving 
desire to move in harmony with those laws. For me, 
education means neither more nor less than this. Any- 
thing which professes to call itself education must be 
tried by this standard, and if it fails to stand the test, 
I will not call it education, whatever may be the force 
of authority, or of numbers, upon the other side. 

5. It is important to remember that, in strictness, 
there is no such thing as an uneducated man. Take an 
extreme case. Suppose that an adult man, in the full 
vigor of his faculties, could be suddenly placed in the 
world, as Adam is said to have been, and then left to 
do as he best might. How long would he be left un- 
educated ? Not five minutes. Nature would begin to 
teach him, through the eye, the ear, the touch, the 
properties of objects. Pain and pleasure would be at 
his elbow telling him to do this and avoid that; and by 
slow degrees the man Avould receive an education, which, 
if narrow, would be thorough, real, and adequate to his 
circumstances, though there would be no extras and 
very few accomplishments. 



'304 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

6. Those who take honors in Nature's university, who 
learn the laws which govern men and things and obey 
them, are the really great and successful men in this 
world. Those who won't learn at all are plucked ; and 
then you can't come up again. Nature's pluck means 
extermination. 

7. Thus the question of compulsory education is set- 
tled so far as Nature is concerned. Her bill on that 
question was framed and passed long ago. But, like 
all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and 
wasteful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply 
as willful disobedience — incapacity meets with the same 
punishment as crime. Nature's discipline is not even a 
word and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow 
without the word. It is left to you to find out why 
your ears are boxed. hi-xley. 



14 MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. 

1. For all the higher arts of construction, some 
acquaintance with mathematics is indispensable. The 
village carpenter, who, lacking rational instruction, lays 
out his work by empirical rules learnt in his appren- 
ticeship, equally with the builder of a Britannia Bridge, 
makes hourly reference to the laws of quantitative rela- 
tions. The surveyor on whose survey the land is 
purchased, the architect in designing a mansion to be 
built on it, the builder in preparing his estimates, his 
foreman in laying out the foundations, the masons in 
cutting the stones, and the various artisans who put up 
the fittings, are all guided by geometrical truths. Rail- 
way-making is regulated from beginning to end by 
mathematics : alike in the preparation of plans and sec- 
tions, in staking out the line, in the mensuration of 
cuttings and embankments, in the designing, estimating, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 305 

and building of bridges, culverts, viaducts, tunnels, sta- 
tions. And similarly with the harbors, docks, piers, and 
various engineering and architectural works that fringe 
the coasts and overspread the face of the country, as 
w T ell as the mines that run underneath it. 

2. Out of geometry, too, as applied to astronomy, the 
art of navigation has grown; and so, by this science, 
has been made possible that enormous foreign commerce 
which supports a large part of our population, and 
supplies us with many necessaries and most of our 
luxuries. 

3. And nowadays even the farmer, for the correct 
laying out of his drains, has recourse to the level — that 
is, to geometrical principles. When from those divisions 
of mathematics which deal with space, and number, some 
small smattering of which is given in schools, we turn 
to that other division which deals with force — of which 
even a smattering is scarcely ever given— we meet with 
another large class of activities which this science pre- 
sides over. 

4. On the application of rational mechanics depends 
the success of nearly all modern manufacture. The 
properties of the lever, the wheel and axle, etc., are 
involved in every machine ; every machine is a solidified 
mechanical theorem ; and to machinery in these times 
we owe nearly all production. 

5. Trace the history of the breakfast-roll. The soil 
out of which it came was drained with machine-made 
tiles ; the surface was turned over by a machine ; the 
seed was put in by a machine ; the wheat was reaped, 
thrashed, and winnowed by machines; by machinery it 
was ground and bolted ; and had the flour been sent to 
Gosport, it might have been made into biscuits by a 
machine. 

6. Look round the room in which you sit. If mod- 
ern, probably the bricks in its walls w T ere machine-made ; 

20 



300 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

by machinery the flooring was sawn and planed, the 
mantel-shelf sawn and polished, the paper-hangings made 
and printed ; the veneer on the table, the turned legs of 
the chairs, the carpet, the curtains, are all products of 
machinery. 

7. And your clothing — plain, figured, or printed — is 
it not wholly woven, nay, perhaps even sewed, by ma- 
chinery ? And the volume you are reading — are not its 
leaves fabricated by one machine and covered with these 
words by another? Add to which, that, for the means 
of distribution over both laud and sea, we arc similarly 
indebted. 

8. And then let it be remembered that according as 
the principles of mechanics are well or ill used to these 
ends, comes success or failure — individual and national. 
The engineer who misapplies his formulas for the strength 
of materials, builds a bridge that breaks down. The 
manufacturer whose apparatus is badly devised, can not 
compete with another whose apparatus wastes less in 
friction and inertia. 

9. The ship-builder adhering to the old model is out- 
sailed by one who builds on the mechanically justified 
wave-line principle. And as the ability of a nation to 
hold its own against other nations depends on the skilled 
activity of its units, we see that on such knowledge 
may turn the national fate. Judge, then, the worth of 
mathematics. 

10. Pass next to physics. Joined with mathematics, 
it has given us the steam-engine, which does the work 
of millions of laborers. That section of physics which 
deals with the laws of heat, has taught us how to econ- 
omize fuel in our various industries ; how to increase 
the produce of our smelting furnaces by substituting 
the hot for the cold blast; how to ventilate our mines; 
how to prevent explosions by using the safety-lamp ; 
and, through the thermometer, how to regulate inmimer- 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 307 

able processes. That division which has the phenomena 
of light for its subject, gives eyes to the old and the 
myopic ; aids through the microscope in detecting dis- 
eases and adulterations ; and by improved lighthouses 
prevents shipwrecks. 

11. Eesearches in electricity and magnetism have saved 
incalculable life and property by the compass ; have 
subserved sundry arts by the electrotype; and now, in 
the telegraph, have supplied us with the agency by 
which, for the future, all mercantile transactions will be 
regulated, political intercourse carried on, and perhaps 
national quarrels often avoided. While in the details 
of indoor life, from the improved kitchen range up to 
the stereoscope on the drawing-room table, the applica- 
tions of advanced physics underlie our comforts and 

gratifications. Herbert Spencer. 



SECTION II. 
PROSE DECLAMATIONS. 

1. CHARACTER OF TRUE ELOQUENCE. 

[This speech is characterized by full declamatory force, long piauscs, 
strong emphasis, prevailing dovjnward inflection, orotund quality, and 
radical stress. Require pupils to give reasons for the marking of rlie- 
torical pauses and inflections.] 

1. When public bodies | are to be addressed | on mo- 
mentous occasions, when great interests | are at stake, 
and strong passions \ excited, nothing | is valuable | in 
speech, further than it is connected | with high intel- 
lectual | and moral endowments. Clearness, force, and 
earnestness | are the qualities | which produce conviction. 
True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It 
cdnnot be brought from far. Labor and learning may 



308 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

toil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases \ 
may be marshaled in every way, but they can not cbm- 
pass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and 
in the occasion. 

2. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of 
declamation, all | may aspire after it ; they cannot rbuh 
it. It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of 
a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of vol- 
canic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. 

3. The graces | taught in the schools, the costly orna- 
ments | and studied contrivances of speech, shock and 
disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their 
wives, their children, and their country, hang on the 
decision of the Atmr. Then, words have lost their power, 
rhetoric is flam, and all elaborate oratory \ contemptible. 
Even genius itself | then feels rebuked and subdued, as 
in the presence of %/ter qualities. Then, patriotism \ 
is eloquent ; then, self-devotion \ is eloquent, 

4 The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of 
logic, the Ugh purpose, the firm resolve, the dduni 
spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, 
informing eWy feature, and urging the w&oJe mdn 
bnivard, right bnivard, to his object— this, this | is eloquence ; 
or, rather, it is something greater and %fter than all 
eloquence— it is dc^'ow, noble, sublime, godlike action. 

2. NATIONAL GREATNESS. 

1. I believe there is no permanent greatness to a 
nation except it be based upon morality. I do not cave 
for military greatness or military renown. I care for 
the condition of the plopU among whom I live. There 
is no man in England who is less likely to speak irrev- 
erently of the crown and monarchy of England than I 
am; but crowns, coronets, miters, military display, the 
pomp of war, wide colonies, and a huge empire are, m 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 309 

my view, all trifles light as ctir, and not worth consid- 
ering, unless with them you can have a fair share of 
comfort, contentment, and happiness among the great 
body of the people. 

2. Palaces, baronial castles, great halls, stately man- 
sions, do not make a nation. The nation, in every 
country, dwells in the cottage; and unless the light of 
your constitution can shine there, unless the beauty of 
your legislation and excellence of your statesmanship 
are impressed there in the feelings and condition of the 
people, rely upon it you have yet to learn the duties of 
government. j0HN Bright . 



3. THE PASSING OF THE EUBICOK 

[An example of impassioned argumentative declamation. .] 

1. A gentleman, Mr. President, speaking of Csesar's 
benevolent disposition, and of the reluctance with which 
he entered into the civil war, observes, "How long did 
he pause upon the brink of the Rubicon ? " How chme 
he to the brink of that river ? How dctred he cross it ? 
Shall private men respect the boundaries of private 
property, and shall a man pay no respect to the bound- 
aries of his country's rights ? How dared he cross that 
river? 0, but he paused upon the brink! He should 
have perished upon the brink ere he had crossed it ! 

2. Why did he pause ? Why does a man's heart pal- 
pitate when he is on the point of committing an un- 
Idwful deed? Why does the very murderer, his victim 
sleeping before him, and his glaring eye taking the 
measure of the blow, strike wide of the mortal part ? 
Because of conscience ! 'T was that made Caesar pause 
upon the brink of the Eubicon. 

3. Compassion ! What compassion ! The compassion 
of an assccssin, that feels a momentary shudder as his 



310 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

weapon begins to cut ! Cresar paused upon the brink 
of the Rubicon ? What ictts the Rubicon ? The boundary 
of Caesar's province. From what did it separate his 
province? From his country. Was that country a 
desert? No: it was cultivated and fertile; rich and 
jib]) id oils ! Its sons were men of genius, spirit, and <j< it- 
er osity ! Its daughters were lovely, susceptible, and chd.st* .' 
Friendship was its inhabitant! Love was its inhabitant! 
Domestic affection was its inhabitant ! Liberty was its 
inhabitant! All bounded by the stream of the Rubicon ! 
4. What was Caesar, that stood upon the brink of 
that river ? A traitor, bringing war and pestilence into 
the heart of that country ! No wonder that lie paused — 
no wdnder if, his imagination wrought upon by his con- 
science, he had beheld blood instead of welter ; and heard 
groans instead of murmurs ! No wonder if some gorgou 
horror had turned him into stone upon the spot ! But, 
no! — he cried, "The die is cast!" He plunged ! — he 
crbssed ! — and Home ivas free no mbre ! k.nowles. 



4. OUR DUTIES TO OUR COUNTRY. 

[An examjjle of oratorical declamation. Movement, slow ; quality, 
orotund; prevailing inflections, falling.] 

1. This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign 
institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, are burs; 
ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Gen- 
erations past, and generations to ebme, hold us respon- 
sible for this sacred trust. Our fathers, from behind, 
admonish us, with their anxious paternal voices ; posterity 
calls out to us, from the bosom of the future ; the world 
turns hither its solicitous eyes — all, all conjure us to act 
wisely, and faithfully, in the relations which wo sustain 

2. We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upbn 
us; but by virtue, hy morality, by religion, by the culti- 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 311 

vation of every good principle and every good hdbit, 
we may hope to enjoy the blessing through our day, 
and to leave it unimpaired to our children. Let us feel 
deeply how much of what we are, and what we p> oss ^ ss y 
we owe to this liberty, and these institutions of govern- 
ment. 

3. Nature has, indeed, given us a soil which yields 
bounteously to the hands of industry ; the mighty and 
fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies over our heads 
shed health and vigor. But what are lands, and seas, 
and skies, to civilized man, without society, without 
'knowledge, without morals, without religious culture? 
and how can these be enjoyed, in all their extent, and 
all their Excellence, but under the protection of wise 
institutions and a free government ? 

4. Fellow-citizens, there is not one of us here present 
who does not, at this moment, and at every moment, 
experience in his own condition, and in the condition 
of those most near and ddar to him, the influence and 
the benefits of this liberty, and these institutions. Let 
us then acknowledge the blessing ; let us feel it deeply 
and powerfully ; let us cherish a strong affection for it, 
and resolve to maintdin and perpetuate it. The blood 
of our fathers, let it not have been shed in vain; the 
great hope of posterity, let it not be blasted. Webster. 



5. THE AMEEICAN" WAR 

1. These abominable principles, and this more abom- 
inable avowed of them, demand the most decisive indig- 
nation ! I call upon that Eight Eeverend Bench, those 
holy ministers of the Gospel, and pious pastors of our 
Church; I conjure them to join in the holy work, and 
to vindicate the religion of their God ! I appeal | to 
the wisdom | and the Idio | of this learned Bench, to de- 



312 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

fend and support the justice of their cbuntry ! I call 
upon the Bishops | to interpose the unsullied sdnctity 
of their lawn, upon the judges \ to interpose the purity 
of their ermine, to save us from this 'pollution .' 

2. I call upon the honor of your Lordships, to rever- 
ence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain 
your own ! I call upon the spirit and humanity of my 
cbuntry, to vindicate the national character I I invoke 
the genius of the Constitution ! From the tapestry | that 
adorns these ivdlls, the immortal ancestor of the noble 
Lord | frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his 
country ! 

3. Turn forth into our settlements, among our ancient 
connections, friends, and relations, the merciless cannibal, 
thirsting for the blood of man, teaman, and child? Send 
forth the infidel savage ? Against whbm ? Against your 
brethren ! To lay waste their country, to desolate their 
dwellings, and extirpate their race and name, with these 
horrible hounds of savage war ! 

4. Spain | armed herself with blbod-hounds to extirpate 
the wretched natives of America; and ice | improve on 
the inhuman example | of even Spanish cruelty ; — we 
turn loose these savages, these fiendish hounds, against 
our brethren and countrymen in America, of the same 
Ictnguage, Utws, liberties, and religion — endeared to us by 
every tie that should sanctify humanity! rn-r. 



6. FREEDOM. 

I will speak the words of Freedom ; I will listen to 
her music ; I will acknowledge her \mp>ulses ; I will stand 
beneath her flag ; I will light in her rhriks; and, when 
I do so, I shall find myself surrounded by the 
the wise, the good, the brdve, the ndble of ivery land. 
If I could stand for a moment upon one of your high 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 313 

moilntaiii~toj)s, far above all the kingdoms of the civil- 
ized world, and there might see, coming up, one after 
another, the bravest and wisest of the ancient warriors, 
and statesmen, and kings, and monarchs, and priests; and 
if, as they came lip, I might be permitted to ask from 
them an expression of opinion upon such a case as this, 
with a common voice and in thunder tones, reverberating 
through a thousand valleys, and echoing down the ages, 
they would cry : "IAherty, Freedom, the Universal Brother- 
hood of Man!" /join that shout; I swell that anthem ; 
I echo that praise forever, and for evermore. 

Col. E. D. Baker. 



7. THE VOICES OF THE DEAD. 

1. The wdrld | is filled | with the voices of the dead. 
They speak | not from the public records of the great 
world only, but from the private history | of our own 
experience. They speak to us | in a thousand remem- 
brances, in a thousand incidents, events, and associations. 
They speak to us, not only from their silent graves, but 
from the throng of life. Though they are invisible, yet 
life | is filled | with their presence. They are with us 
by the silent fireside | and in the secluded chamber. 
They are with us | in the paths of society, and in the 
crowded assemblies of men. 

2. They speak to us | from the lonely wdy-side; and 
they speak to us | from the venerable w&lls | that echo 
to the steps of a multitude | and to the voice of prayer. 
Go where we will, the dead | are with us. We live, we 
converse with those | who once lived | and conversed | 
with us. Their well-remembered tone | mingles with the 
whispering breeze, with the sound of the falling ldaf, 
with the jubilee shout ] of the sprmg-time. — The earth 
( is filled | with their shadowy train. 



314 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

3. But there are more substdntied expressions | of the 
presence of the dead | with the Kving. The earth | is 
filled with the labors, the wbrks, of the dead. Almost 
all the literature in the world, the discoveries of scit n<-, } 
the glories of drt, the ever-enduring temples, the dwelling- 
places of generations, the comforts and improvements of 
life, the languages, the maxims, the opinions of the Vicing, 
the very frame-work of society, the institutions of nations, 
the fabrics of empires — d/Z | are the works of the </fV<V. 
By these, they | who are dead | yet speak. orville Dewey. 



8. GBATTAN'S KEPLY TO MB. COBBY. 

{An example of impassioned sarcasm and invective.} 

1. Has the gentleman done? Has he completely done ? 
He was unparliamentary from the beginning to the e/if? 
of his speech. There was scarce a word he uttered that 
was not a violation of the privileges of the House. But 
I did not call him to order, — why ? because the limited 
talents of some men render it impossible for them to 
be severe withdut being unparliamentary. But before I 
sit down, I shall show him how to be severe and par- 
liamentary at the same time. 

2. The right honorable gentlemen has called me " an 
unimpieached traitor!' I ask why not "traitor,'' unquali- 
fied by any epithet? I will tell him: it was because he 
dilrst not. It was the act of a edicard, who raises his 
arm to strike, but has not courage to give the blow. I 
will not call him villain, because it would be unparlia- 
mentary, and he is a privy counselor. I will not call 
him fool, because he happens to be chdncellor of the 
crld'quer. But I say, he is one who has abused the 
privilege of Parliament and the freedom of debate, by 
uttering language which, if spoken out of the H6use, I 
should answer only with a blow. I care not how high 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 315 

his situation, how low his character, how contemptible 
his 'speech; whether a privy counselor or a parasite, my 
answer would be a blow. 

3. I have returned, — not as the right honorable mem- 
ber has said, to raise another storm, — I have returned 
to discharge an honorable debt of gratitude to my 
country, that conferred a great reward for past services, 
which, I am proud to say, was not greater than my 
desert. I have returned to protect that Constitution of 
which I was the parent and founder, from the assassi- 
nation of such men as the right honorable gentleman 
and his unworthy associates. They are corrupt, they are 
seditious, and they, at this very moment, are in a con- 
spiracy against their country. I have returned to refute 
a libel, as false as it is malicious, given to the public 
under the appellation of a report of the committee of 
the Lords. Here I stand, ready for impeachment or trial 
I dare accusation. I defy the honorable gentleman ; I 
defy the government ; I defy their whole jjhdlanx; let 
them come forth. I tell the ministers, I will neither 
give quarter nor take it. I am here to lay the shat- 
tered remains of my constitution on the floor of this 
House, in defense of the liberties of my country. 



9. SUPPOSED SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS IN 
SUPPOET OF AMEPJCAN INDEPENDENCE. 

1. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give 
my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, 
that in the beginning we aimed not at Independence. 
But there 's a Divinity which shapes our ends. The 
injustice of England has driven us to arms ; and, blinded 
to her own interest for our good, she has obstinately 
persisted, till Independence is now within our grasp. 
We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. 



316 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

2. "Why, then, should we defer the Declaration? Is 
any man so weak as now to hope for a reconcilidtion 
with England ? Do we mean to submit to the measures 
of Parliament, Boston port-bill and all ? I know we do 
owl mean to submit. We never shall submit. 

3. Sir, the Declaration will inspire the people with 
increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war 
for restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, 
for chartered immunities, held under a British king, set 
before them the glorious object of entire Independence, 
and it will breathe into them anew the breath of life. 

4. Read this Declaration at the head of the d/rmy: 
every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the 
solemn vow uttered, to maintain it, or to perish on the 
field of honor. Publish it from the pMpit; religion will 
approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling 
round it, resolved to stand with it, or /cell with it. 

5. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there. Let 
them hear it who heard the first roar of the enemy s 
cannon ; let them see it who saw their brothers and their 
sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets 
of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry 
out in its support. 

6. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is cbmc. My 
judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is 
In it. All that I helve, and all that I dm, and all that 
I hbpe, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon 
it ; and I leave off as I began, that live or die. survive 
or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living 
sdntiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my 
dying sentiment: Independence now; and Independence 

jOVtVCr. Daniel Webster. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 317 

10. THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION. 

[In this speech the movement is slow; the utterance deliberate, the 
pauses long; and the inflections strongly marked.'] 

1. For myself, I propose, Sir, to abide by the prin- 
ciples | and the 'purposes | which I have avowed. I shall 
stdnd by the Union, and by all | who stand by it. I 
shall do justice to the whole country, according to the 
best of my ability, in all I say, and act for the good of 
the whole country | in all I do. I mean to stand upon 
the Constitution. I need no other platform. I shall know 
but one country. 

2. The ends I aim at | shall be my country s, my 
God's, and Truth's. I was bom | an American ; I will 
live an American ; I shall die an American ; and I intend 
to perform the duties incumbent upon me | in that 
character | to the end of my career. I mean to do this, 
with the absolute disregard of personal consequences. 

3. What core | personal consequences ? What is the 
individual man, with all the good or evil that may be- 
tide him, in comparison with the good or evil | which 
may befall a great country | in a crisis like this, and in 
the midst of great transactions | which concern that 
country s fctte ? Let the consequences j be what they will. 
I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no 
man can fall too soon, if he suffer | or if he fall | in 
defense of the liberties | and Constitution \ of his country. 

Webster. 



11. THE CONSTITUTION. 

1. Never did there devolve on any generation of men 
higher trusts than now devolve upon us, for the pres- 
ervation of this Constitution, and the harmony and 
peace of all who are destined to live under it. Let us 
make our generation one of the strongest and brightest 
links in that golden chain which is destined, I fondly 



318 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

believe, to grapple the people of all the States to this 
Constitution for ages to come. 

2. We have a great, popular, constitutional govern- 
ment, guarded by law and by judicature, and defended 
by the affections of the people. No monarchical throne 
presses these States together. They live and stand upon 
a government popular in its form, representative in its 
character, founded upon principles of equality, and so 
constructed, we hope, as to last forever. 

3. In all its history it has been beneficent. It has 
trodden clown no man's liberty, it has crushed no State. 
Its daily respiration is liberty and patriotism. Its 
youthful veins are full of enterprise, courage, and hon- 
orable love of glory and renown. Large before, the 
country has now, by recent events, become vastly larger. 
This republic now extends, with a vast breadth, across 
the whole continent. The two great seas of the world 
wash the one and the other shore. "We realize on a 
mighty scale the beautiful description of the ornamental 
ed^inq- of the bucklers of Achilles : 

"Now the broad shield complete, the artist crowned 
With his last hand, and poured the ocean round. 
In living silver seemed the waves to roll, 
And beat the buckler's verge and bound the whole." 

Daniel Webster. 



12. DUTIES OF AMERICAN CITIZENS. 

1. AYe have indulged in gratifying recollections of 
the past, in the prosperity and pleasures of the present, 
and in high hopes for the future. But let us remember 
that we have duties and obligations to perform, corre- 
sponding to the blessings which we enjoy. 

2. Let us remember the trust, the sacred trust, attach- 
ing to the rich inheritance which we have received from 
our fathers. Let us feel our personal responsibility, to 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 319 

the full extent of our power and influence, for the 
preservation of the principles of civil and religious lib- 
erty. And let us remember that it is only religion, and 
morals, and knowledge, that can make men respectable 
and happy, under any form of government. 

3. Let us hold fast the great truth, that communities 
are responsible, as well as individuals; that no govern- 
ment is respectable, which is not just; that without un- 
spotted purity of public faith, without sacred public prin- 
ciple, fidelity, and honor, no mere forms of government, 
no machinery of laws, can give dignity to political society. 
In our day and generation let us seek to raise and im- 
prove the moral sentiment, so that we may look, not 
for a degraded, but for an elevated and improved future. 

4. And when both we and our children shall have 
been consigned to the house appointed for all living, 
may love of country and pride of country glow with 
equal fervor among those to whom our names and our 
blood shall have descended. 

5. And then, when honored and decrepit age shall 
lean against the base of this monument, and troops of 
ingenuous youth shall be gathered round it, and when 
the one shall speak to the other of its objects, the pur- 
poses of its construction, and the great and glorious 
events with which it is connected, there shall rise from 
every youthful breast the ejaculation, " Thanh God, I — 
i" also — am an American ! " daxiel Webster. 



13. LABOR. 

1. Ldbor is heaven's great ordinance for human im- 
provement. Let not the great ordinance be broken down. 
What do I say ? It is broken down ; and has been 
broken down for ages. Let it, then, be built again; 
here, if anywhere, on the shores of a new ivbrld — of a 
new civilization. 



320 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

2. But how, it may be asked, is it broken down ? Do 
not men toil ? it may be said. They do, indeed, toil ; 
but they too generally do, because they must. Many 
submit to it, as to, in some sort, a degrading necessity ; 
and they desire nothing so much on darth as an escape 
from it. This way of thinking is the heritage of the 
absurd and unjust feudal system, under which serfs 
labored, and gentlemen spent their lives in fight lag and 
feasting. It is time that this opprobrium of toil were 
done away. 

3. Ashamed to toll ! Ashamed of thy dingy workshop 
and dusty labor-field ; of thy hard hand, scarred with 
service more honorable than that of war; of thy soiled 
and weather-stained garments, on which mother Nature 
has embroidered mist, sun and rain, fire and steam — 
her own heraldic Jwnors ! 

4. Ashamed of those tokens and titles, and envious of 
the flaunting robes of imbecile idleness and vanity I It 
is treason to Nature; it is impiety to Heaven: it is 
breaking Heaven's great ordinance. Toll — toil — either of 
the brain, of the hedrt, or of the hand — is the only true 
manhood, the only true nobility ! orville dewkt. 



14. THE FUTURE OF AMERICA. 

1. It cannot be denied, but by those who would dis- 
pute against the siin, that with America, and in America, 
a new era commences in human affairs. This era is 
distinguished by free representative government*, by en- 
tire religious liberty, by improved systems of national 
intercourse, by a newly awakened and an unconquerable 
spirit of free inquiry, and by a diffusion of knowledge 
through the community, such as has been before alto- 
gether unknown and unheard of. 

2. America, AmSrica, our coiuitry, our own dear and 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 321 

native land, is inseparably connected, fast bound up, in 
fortune and by fate, with these great Interests. If they 
fall, we fall wtih them ; if they stand, it will be because 
we have upheld them. 

3. Let us contemplate, then, this connection which 
binds the prosperity of others to our own; and let us' 
manfully discharge all the duties which it imposes. If 
we cherish the virtues and the principles of our fathers, 
Heaven will assist us to carry on the work of human 
liberty and human hajypincss. 

4. Auspicious omens cheer us. Great emmples are 
before us. Our bivn firmament now shines brightly upon 
our path. Washington is in the clear upper sky. Those 
other stars have now joined the American constellation; 
they circle round their center, and the heavens beam 
with new light. Beneath this illumination, let us walk 
the course of life, and at its close devoutly commend 
our beloved country, the common parent of us all, to 

the Divine Benignity. Daniel Webster. 



15. PATEIOTISM. 

1. Bereft of patriotism, the heart of a nation will be 
cold and cramped and sordid ; the arts will have no 
enduring impulse, and commerce no invigorating soul ; 
society will degenerate, and the mean and vicious will 
triumph. Patriotism is not a wild and glittering passion, 
but a glorious reality. The virtue that gave to Paganism 
its dazzling luster, to Barbarism its redeeming trait, to 
Christianity its heroic form, is not dead. It still lives 
to console, to sanctify humanity. It has its altar in 
every clime ; its worship and festivities. 

2. On the heathered hills of Scotland, the sword of 
Wallace is yet a bright tradition. The genius of France, 
in the brilliant literature of the day, pays its high 

21 



322 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

homage to the piety and heroism of the young Maid 
of Orleans. In her new Senate-hall, England bids her 
sculptor place, among the effigies of her greatesl s us, 
the images of Hampden and of Russell. In the gay 

and graceful capital of Belgium, the daring hand of 
Geefs has reared a monument full of glorious meaning 
to the three hundred martyrs of the revolution. 

3. By the soft blue waters of Lake Lucerne stands 
the chapel of William Tell. On the anniversary of his 
revolt and victory, across those waters, as they glitter 
in the July sun, skim the light boats of the allied can- 
tons, from the prows hang the banners of the republic, 
and as they near the sacred spot, the daughters of Lu- 
cerne chant the hymns of their old poetic laud. Then 
bursts forth the glad Te Deum, and Heaven a^ain hears 
the voice of that wild chivalry of the mountains, which 
five centuries since pierced the white eagle of Vienna, 
and flung it bleeding on the rocks of L T ri. 

T. F. Meagher. 



16. THE FOURTH OF JULY. 

1. On the Fourth of July, 1776, the representatives 
of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, 
declared that these United Colonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and independent States. This decla- 
ration, made by most patriotic and resolute men, trust- 
ing in the justice of their cause, and the protection of 
Providence — and yet not without deep solicitude and 
anxiety — has stood for seventy-five years, and still stands. 

2. It was sealed in blood. It has met dangers and 
overcome them; it has had enemies, and it has con- 
quered them ; it has had detractors, and it has abashed 
them all; it has had doubting friends, but it has cleared 
all doubts away ; and now, to-day, raising its august 
form higher than the clouds, twenty millions of people 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 323 

contemplate it with hallowed love ; and the world beholds 
it, and the consequences which have followed, with pro- 
found admiration. 

3. This anniversary animates, and gladdens, and unites 
all American hearts. On other days of the year we may 
be party men, indulging in controversies more or less 
important to the public good ; we may have likes and 
dislikes, and we may maintain our political differences 
often with warm, and sometimes with angry feelings. 
But to-day we are Americans all in all, nothing but 
Americans. 

4. As the great luminary over our heads, dissipating 
mists and fogs, cheers the whole hemisphere, so do the 
associations connected with this day disperse all cloudy 
and sullen weather, and all noxious exhalations in the 
minds and feelings of true Americans. Every man's 
heart swells within him; — every man's port and bearing 
become somewhat more proud and lofty, as he remem- 
bers that seventy-five years have rolled away, and that 
the great inheritance of liberty is still his ; his, undi- 
minished and unimpaired; his, in all its original glory; 
his to enjoy, his to protect, and his to transmit to future 

generations. Daniel Webster. 



17. TEUE GEEATNESS. 

1. The poet tells us, in pathetic cadence, that 

"The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 

But this is true only in the superficial sense. It is 
true that the famous and the obscure, the devoted and 
the ignoble, "alike await the inevitable hbur." But the 
path of true glory does not end in the grave. It passes 
through it to larger opportunities of service. 

2. A great nature is a seed. "It is sown a natural 
body; it is raised a spiritual body." It germinates thus 



324 school elocution. 

in tMs world as well as in the other. Was Warren 
buried when he fell on the field of a defeat, pierced 
through the brain, at the commencement of the Revo- 
lution, by a bullet that put the land in mduming / 

3. Nb; the monument that has been raised where his 
blood reddened the sod — granite though it be in a hun- 
dred courses — is a feeble witness of the permanence and 
influence of Ms spirit among the American people. He 
mounted into . literature from the moment that lie fell; 
he began to move the soul of a greed community ; and 
part of the principle and enthusiasm of Massachusetts 
to-day is due to his sacrifice, to the presence of his spirit 
as a power in the life of the State. 

4. Did Montgomery lose his influence as a force in 
the Revolution, because he died without victory on its 
threshold, pierced with three wounds, before Quebec ? 
Philadelphia was in tears for him; his eulogies were 
uttered by the most eloquent tongues of Amdrica and 
Britain, and a thrill of his power beats in the volumes 
of our history, and runs yet through the onset of every 
Irish brigade beneath the American banner, which he 
planted on Montreal. 

5. Did Lawrence die when his breath expired in the 
defeat on the sea, after his exclamation, "Don't give 
up the ship ! " What victorious captain in that naval 
war shed forth such power? His spirit soared and 
touched every flag on every frigate t to make its red more 
commanding and its stars flam c brighter ; it went abroad 
in tongs, and every sailor felt him and feels him now as 
an inspiration. 

G. The soul is not a shadow. The body is. G4nhts is 
not a sliadow ; it is substance. Pdtriotisni is not a shddow ; 
it is light. Great purposes, and the spirit that counts 
death nothing in contrast with honor and the welfare of 
our country — these are the witnesses that man is not a 
2)assing vapor, but an immdrtal spirit. tuomasStarrKi.no. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 325 

18. THE NOEMANS. 

1. In 1066, the Normans invaded England, and the 
•battle of Hastings broke, forever, the Saxon and Danish 
power. But years passed, and several monarchs filled 
and vacated the English throne before these Norman 
pioneers had accomplished their work, and molded the 
nation to their will. 

2. They were warriors — not reformers. They were 
greedy of power, but impatient of its exercise upon 
themselves ; greedy of wealth, but lavish in its expend- 
iture. They were reckless alike of their own and the 
life of others. Turbulent, unruly — equally dangerous 
to the people whom they subdued, and to the princes 
who led them to conquest. Gallant men, full of deeds 
of knightly courtesy, yet reddening their hands with 
the blood of civil broil, and ever ready to maintain 
their right with their swords. 

3. Men of clear intellect and giant will, they acknowl- 
edged an uncertain allegiance to their king, and only 
bowed their necks to the yoke of God, when at the 
close of life they deemed it necessary to assume the 
monastic habit, or to do penance of their goods for the 
salvation of their souls. 

4. Erom these stern and bloody men, " who came in 
with the Conqueror," or followed in the train of his 
successors, the noblest families of England are proud 
to derive their descent ; and even we republicans, upon 
this distant coast, and at this late period of time, do 
not refuse our admiration to these Norman pioneers, 
who, through the mists of the past, loom up like giants 
before us. 

5. Yet our admiration of these old warriors, the ad- 
miration of the world for them, is not because they 
shed blood, or amassed or squandered wealth, or swore 
fealty to their kings, or broke their oaths in rebellion, 



326 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

or committed or abstained from the crimes that were 
common to their age. The Norman pioneers are enrolled 
in history among the most illustrious of men, because 
in the dark and troublous times in which they lived, in 
the midst of confusion and blood, with strong hands 
and undaunted hearts, they laid deep the first founda- 
tions of English liberty, and became the fathers of that 
system of common law which, at the end of eight hun- 
dred years, is the protection and the glory of all who 
speak the English tongue. F> R TRACy 



19. WASHINGTON'S BIETHDAY. 

1. Inspiring auspices, this day, surround us and cheer 
us. It is the anniversary of the birth of Washington. 
We should know this, even if we had lost our calendars, 
for we should be reminded of it by the shouts of joy 
and gladness. The whole atmosphere is redolent of his 
name ; hills and forests, rocks and rivers, echo and re- 
echo his praises. 

2. All the good, whether learned or unlearned, high 
or low, rich or poor, feel, this day, that there is one 
treasure common to them all, and that is the fame and 
character of Washington. They recount his deeds, pon- 
der over his principles and teachings, and resolve to be 
more and more guided by them in the future. 

3. To the old and the young, to all born in the land, 
and to all whose love of liberty has brought them from 
foreign shores to make this the home of their adoption, 
the name of Washington is this day an exhilarating 
theme. Americans by birth are proud of his eharaet i . 
and exiles from foreign shores are eager to participate 
in admiration of him; and it is true that he is this 
day, here, everywhere, all the world over, more an object 
of love and regard than on any day since his birth. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 327 

4. On Washington's principles, and under the guid- 
ance of his example, will we and our children uphold 
the Constitution. Under his military leadership our 
fathers conquered ; and under the outspread banner of 
his political and constitutional principles will we also 
conquer. 

5. To that standard we shall adhere, and uphold it 
through evil report and through good report. "We will 
meet danger, we will meet death, if they come, in its 
protection ; and we will struggle on, in daylight and in 
darkness, ay, in the thickest darkness, with all the 
storms which it may bring with it, till 

"Danger's troubled night is o'er, 
And the star of Peace return." Webster. 



20. NATIONS AND HUMANITY. 

1. It was not his olive valleys and orange groves 
which made the Greece of the Greek. It was not for 
his apple orchards or potato fields that the farmer of 
Xew England and New York left his plow in the 
furrow and marched to Bunker Hill, to Bennington, to 
Saratoga. A man's country is not a certain area of 
land, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to 
that principle. The secret sanctification of the soil and 
symbol of a country is the idea which they represent ; 
and this idea the patriot worships through the name 
and the symbol. 

2. So with passionate heroism, of which tradition is 
never weary of tenderly telling, Arnold von Winkclreid 
gathers into his bosom the sheaf of foreign spears. So, 
Nathan Utile, disdaining no service that duty demands, 
perishes untimely with no other friend than God and 
the satisfied sense of duty. So, through all history from 
the beginning, a noble army of martyrs has fought 



328 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

fiercely, and fallen bravely, for that unseen mistress, 
their country. So, through all history to the eud, that 
army must still mdrch, and fight, and fall. 

3. But countries and families are but nurseries and 
Influences. A man is a father, a brother, a German, a 
Boman, an American; but beneath all £A2se relations, 
Ac ?'s a widfi. The end of his human destiny is not to 
be the best German, or the best Boman, or the best 
father ; but the best man he can be. geoege w. clktis. 



21. CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON. 

1. Sir, it matters very little what immediate spot may 
be the birthplace of such a man as Washington. No 
people can claim, no country can appropriate him. The 
boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, 
and his residence creation. Though it was the defeat 
of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost 
bless the convulsion in which he had his origin. If the 
heavens thunder eel, and the earth roelccd, yet, when the 
storm passed, how pu^e was the climate that it cleared ; 
how r bright, in the brow of the firmament, was the planet 
which it rcvecded to us ! 

2. In the production of Washington, it does really 
appear as if Nature was endeavoring to improve upon 
herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world 
were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of 
the new. Individual instances no doubt there we're — 
splendid exemplifications of some single qualification. 
Caesar w T as merciful ; Scipio was continent ; Hannibal was 
patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend 
them all in one, ami, like the lovely masterpiece of the 
Grecian artist, to exhibit, in one glow of associated 
beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of 
every master. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 329 

3. As a general, he marshalled the peasant into a vet- 
era?!; and supplied by discipline the absence of experience ; 
as a statesman, lie enlarged the policy of the cabinet 
into the most comprehensive system of general advan- 
tage ; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the 
philosophy of his counsels, that to the soldier and the 
statesman, he almost added the character of the sage ! 
A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood ; 
a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason; 
for aggression commenced the contest, and his country 
called him to the command. 

4. Liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stdincd, vic- 
tory returned it. If he had paused here, history might 
have doubted what station to assign him ; whether at 
the head of her citizens or her soldiers, her heroes or her 
patriots. But the last glorious act crowns his carder, 
and banishes all hesitation. Wlw, like Washington, after 
having emancipated a hemisphere, resigned its crown, 
and preferred the retirement of domestic life to the 
adoration of a land he might be almost said to have 

Created ? Phillips. 



22. BUNKEK-HILL MONUMENT. 

1. The Bunker-Hill monument is finished. Here it 
stands. Fortunate in the natural eminence on which 
it is placed — higher, Infinitely higher, in its objects and 
purpose, it rises over the land, and over the sda ; and 
visible, at their homes, to three hundred thousand citi- 
zens of Massachusetts — it stands, a memorial of the 
past, and a monitor to the present, and all succeeding 
generations. 

2. I have spoken of the loftiness of its purpose. If 
it had been without any other design than the creation 
of a work of art, the granite of which it is composed 



330 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

would have slept in its native bed. It lids a purpose ; 
and that purpose gives it character. That purpose 
enrobes it with dignity and moral grandeur. That wSU- 
known purpose it is, which causes us to look up to it with 
a feeling of awe. It is itself the orator of this occ&sion. 

3. It is not from my lips, it is not from any human 
lips, that that strain of eloquence is this day to flow, 
most competent to move and excite the vast multitudes 
around. The potent speaker stands motionless before 
them. It is a 'plain shaft. It bears no inscriptions, 
fronting to the rising sun, from which the future anti- 
quarian shall wipe the dust. Nor does the rising sun 
cause tones of music to issue from its summit. But 
at the rising of the sun, and at the setting of the sun, 
in the blaze of noon-day, and beneath the milder efful- 
gence of lunar light, it looks, it speaks, it acts, to the 
full comprehension of every American mind, and the 
awakening of glowing enthusiasm in every American 
heart. 

4. Its silent, but awful utterance ; its deep pathos, as 
it brings to our contemplation the 17th of June, 177". 
and the consequences which have resulted to us, to our 
country, and to the world, from the events of that day, 
and which we know must continue to rain influence on 
the destinies of mankind to the end of time ; the eleva- 
tion with which it raises us high above the Ordinary 
feelings of life — surpass all that the study of the closet, 
or even the inspiration of genius can product 1 . 

5. To-ddy, it speaks to its. Its future auditories will 
be through successive generations of me*n, as they rise 
up before it, and gather round it. Its speech will be of 
jjdtriotism and courage; of civil and religious liberty; 
of free government; of the moral improvement and ele- 
vation of mankind; and of the immortal mSmory of 
those who, with heroic devotion, have sacrificed fckeii 
lives for their country. n ANIKL Webster. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 331 

23. THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON. 

1. The birthday of the " Father of his Country" ! May 
it ever be freshly remembered by American hearts ! 
May it ever re-awaken in them a filial veneration for 
his memory ; ever rekindle the fires of patriotic regard 
for the country which be loved so well, to which he 
gave his youthful vigor and his youthful energy, during 
the perilous period of the early Indian warfare ; to which 
he devoted his life in the maturity of his powers, in the 
field ; to which again he offered the counsels of his wis- 
dom and his experience, as president of the convention 
that framed our Constitution ; which he guided and 
directed while in the chair of state, and for which the 
last prayer of his earthly supplication was offered up, 
when it came the moment for him so well, and so 
grandly, and so calmly, to die. 

2. He was the first man of the time in which he grew. 
His memory is first and most sacred in our love, and 
ever hereafter, till the last drop of blood shall freeze in 
the last American heart, his name shall be a spell of 
power and of might. 

3. Yes, gentlemen, there is one personal, one vast 
felicity, which no man can share with him. It was the 
daily beauty, and towering and matchless glory of his 
life which enabled him to create his country, and at the 
same time secure an undying love and regard from 
the whole American people. "The first in the hearts 
of his countrymen ! " Yes, first ! He has our first and 
most fervent love. 

4. Undoubtedly there were brave and wise and good 
men, before his day, in every colony. But the Amer- 
ican nation, as a nation, I do not reckon to have begun 
before 1774. And the first love of that Young America 
was Washington. The first word she lisped was his 
name. Her earliest breath spoke it. It still is her 



332 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

proud ejaculation; and it will be the last gasp of her 
expiring life! 

5. Yes; others of our great men have been appre- 
ciated—many admired by all ; but him we love ; him we 
all love. About and around him we call up no dissen- 
tient and discordant and dissatisfied elements — no sec- 
tional prejudice nor bias— no party, no creed, no dogma 
of politics. None of these shall assail him. Yes ; when 
the storm of battle blows darkest and rages highest, the 
memory of Washington shall nerve every American 
arm, and cheer every American heart. Ri -fcs choate. 



24 THE NATIONAL CLOCK. 

1. Every nation is like a clbck, the forces at work 
within carrying forward some purpose or plan of Prov- 
idence with patient constancy; but when the season 
comes that the sixtieth minute is diie, and a new hdur 
must be sounded, perhaps not for the nation alone, but 
for the world, th6n—thhi the clock strikes, and it may 
be with a force and resonance that startles and inspires 

the race. 

2. The first American revolution was such a period — 
that was the glory, of it. The Euglish Government had 
oppressed our /cithers. It tried to break their spirit. 
For several ye'ars it was a dark time, like the hours 
before the striking of the d&wn. 

3. But the Colonial time-piece kept ticking, ticking to 
the pressure of the English Government, the giant 
wheels playing calmly till about 1775', when there was 
a strange stir and Inc: within the case. The r 
could not bear any more of it. But the sixtieth minute 
came, and the clock strucl: 

4. The wdrld heard— the battle of Lixington—bne; the 
Declaration of Independence— tirb ; the surrender of Bur- 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 333 

goyne — three; the siege of Yorktoion—fbur; the Treaty 
of Paris— five ; the inauguration of Washington — six. 

5. And then it was sunrise of the new day, of which 
we have seen yet only the glorious forenoon. 

Thomas Starr King. 



25. FEEE SCHOOLS. 

1. It is impossible for us adequately to conceive the 
boldness of the measure which aimed at universal edu- 
cation through the establishment of Free Schools. As 
a fact, it had no precedent in the world's history; and, 
as a theory, it could have been refuted and silenced by 
a more formidable array of argument and experience 
than was ever marshaled against any other institution 
of human origin. 

2. But time has ratified its soundness. Two centuries 
of successful operation now proclaim it to be as wise 
as it was courageous, and as beneficent as it was disin- 
terested. Every community in the civilized world awards 
it the meed of praise, aud States at home, and nations 
abroad, in the order of their intelligence, are copying 
the bright example. 

3. What we call the enlightened nations of Christen- 
dom are approaching, by slow degrees, to the moral 
elevation which our ancestors reached at a single bound ; 
and the tardy convictions of the one have been assimi- 
lating, through a period of two centuries, to the intuitions 
of the other. 

4. The establishment of Free Schools was one of those 
grand mental and moral experiments whose effects could 
not be developed and made manifest in a single genera- 
tion. But now, according to the manner in which human 
life is computed, we are the sixth generation from its 
founders; and have we not reason to be grateful, both 
to God and man, for its unnumbered blessings ? The 



334 school elocution. 

sincerity of our gratitude must be tested by our efforts 
to perpetuate and to improve what tiiey established. 
The gratitude of the lips only is an unholy offering, 

Hoka< i. .Mann. 



26. THE BALLOT. 

1. Consider, for a moment, what it is to cast a vote. 
It is the token of inestimable 'privileges, and involves 
the responsibilities of an hereditary trust. It has passed 
into your hands as a right, reaped from fields of suffer- 
ing and blood. 

2. The grandeur of history is represented in your act. 
Men have wrought with pen and tongue, and pined in 
dungeons, and died on scaffolds, that you might obtain 
this symbol of freedom, and enjoy this consciousness of 
a sacred individuality. To the ballot have been trans- 
mitted, as it we're, the dignity of the sceptre and the 
potency of the swbrd. 

3. And that which is so potent as a right, is also 
pregnant as a duty; a duty for the prSsent and for the 
future. If you will, that folded leaf becomes a tongue 
of justice, a voice of order, a force of imperial law — 
securing rights, abolishing abuses, erecting new institu- 
tions of truth and love. And, however you will, it is 
the expression of a solemn responsibility, the < of 
an immeasurable pbwer for good or for dvil, ndw and 
hereafter. 

4. It is the medium through which you act upon 
your country — the organic nerve which incorporates ydu 
with its life and wblfare. There is no agent with which 
the possibilities of the republic are more intimately in- 
volved, none upon which we can fall back with more 
confidence than the ballot-box. a u. Chamh. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 335 

27. EDUCATIONAL POWER. 

1. The true teacher must have the faith of martyrs. 
In the limited horizon of the school- room, the teacher 
can dimly see only the beginning of the effects of his 
training upon his pupils. The solid and lasting results, 
the building up of character, the creative power of 
motives, are made evident only in the wider circle of 
the world, and at the end of a life-time. Hence the 
power of the teacher, like that of the silent and invis- 
ible forces of nature, is only feebly realized. 

2. I once visited, in the Sierra, a quartz mine of 
fabulous richness. Deep in the bowels of the earth, 
swarthy miners were blasting out the gold-bearing rock ; 
above, the powerful mill was crushing the quartz with 
its iron teeth. In the office, piles of yellow bars, ready 
to be sent to the mint to be poured into the channels 
of trade, showed the immediate returns of well-directed 
labor and wisely invested capital. An hour later, I 
stepped into a public school-house not half a mile distant, 
where fifty children were conning their lessons. What 
does the school yield, I asked myself, on the invest- 
ment of money by the State ? The returns of the mine 
were made in solid bullion ; the school returns were all 
far in the unknown future. 

3. I crossed the continent from the Pacific to the 
Atlantic on the grandest commercial highway ever built, 
and all along, towns, villages, cities, mines, farms, machine 
shops, manufactories, and converging roads, bore evidence 
of the mighty physical forces of the nation ; and when I 
entered a meeting of the National Educational Association 
in a P>oston school-house, where two hundred thoughtful 
men and women were assembled, it seemed, after wit- 
nessing the gigantic play of industrial and commercial 
forces, that the school-masters and school-mistresses were 
lookers-on and idlers in the bustling life around. 



336 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

4. But when, in the mild summer evening, I walked 
under the elms of Boston Common and reflected that 
independence was once only a dim idea in the minds of 
a few leading patriots ; that the engine which had whirled 
me over the iron track, three thousand miles in seven 
days, was once only an idea in the brain of an enthu- 
siast ; that the telegraph wires, radiating like nerves 
from the centers of civilization, were created by the in- 
ventive genius of an educated thinker, I realized that 
there is a silent power, mightier than all mechanical 
forces, which preserves, directs, and controls the material 
prosperity of a great nation. 

5. I "o out into the streets of the creat commercial 
center of our country. I hear everywhere the hum of 
industry, and see around the stir of business. I see the 
steamships plying like gigantic shuttles to weave a net- 
work of commercial relations between the new world 
and the old. I see the smoke of manufactories where 
skillful artisans are constructing the marvelous produc- 
tions of inventive genius. The banks are open ; keen 
capitalists are on 'Change ; and the full tide of human- 
ity is pulsating through every artery of the town. The 
results of business are solid and tangible. I step into 
the Xew York Normal College where a thousand young 
women are fitting for the profession of teaching, and if 
asked for the tangible results of the educational invest- 
ment, the evidences are not at hand. 

6. But when I pause to consider that intelligence is the 
motive power of trade : that the city with its banks, ware- 
houses, cl lurches, residences, and manufactories, is the 
product of skilled labor; that the steamship is navigated 
by means of science, and is built as a triumph of art : that 
science surveyed the railroad lines, and that skill runs 
the trains freighted with the products of industry and 
art; then I begin to perceive some connection between 
educational forces and the material results of civilization. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 337 

28. SCHOOLS AXD TEACHERS. 

1. Looking into the near future, I see the aisles of 
the school-room widen into the broad streets of the city. 
The boys are business men. One commands the steam- 
ship, one operates the telegraph, and another runs an en- 
gine ; one is a railroad director, and another rides over 
the road to take his seat in the senate of the United 
States. One works a gold mine, another an iron mine, 
and another a coal mine ; one is a merchant, one a banker, 
one a "Wall-street speculator ; one is a farmer in the 
west, another a manufacturer in the east; one is a mer- 
chant, another a mechanic, and a third is an inventor. 

2. The girls have become women. Some preside as 
queens in home circles, some are teachers, some are 
writers, some are artists, and others are skilled in 
household work. I realize that the life of a nation is 
made up of mothers that guard the homes of the men 
who drive the plow, build the ships, run the mills, work 
the mines, construct machinery, print the papers, shoulder 
the musket, and cast the ballots ; and it is for all these 
that the public schools have done and are now doing 
their beneficent work. 

3. When I ponder over the far-reaching influence of 
the teacher and the school, I comprehend, in some 
measure, the relation to our national well-being, of our 
American system of free public schools — the best, not- 
withstanding its defects and shortcomings, that the 
world has ever known. It is the duty of every teacher 
to strive with all his heart, and with all his soul, and 
with all Ids might, to perfect a system of education 
which shall train a race of men and women in the next 
generation, that shall inherit, with the boundless re- 
sources of our favored land, something of the enemy. 
enterprise, talent, and character of the sturdy pioneers 
who settled and subdued the wilderness. 

22 



338 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

4. Only timid and despairing souls are frightened into 
the belief that the foundations of society are breaking 
up on account of over-education in the common schools. 
Neither representatives of the Caste of Capital nor the 
Caste of Culture can convince the American people that 
vice, crime, idleness, poverty, and social discontent are 
the necessary result of an elementary education among 
the workers of society. No demagogue, with specious 
statements, can lead any considerable number of citizens 
to regard the school-master as a public enemy. 

5. The free common school is the Plymouth Kock of 
American liberty. If the system of free schools, as now- 
conducted and organized, fails to meet the needs of 
social progress, not the extent, but the kind and quality, 
of education must be changed. Neither high school nor 
university must be lopped off from our free-school system. 

G. It is only through skilled labor, wisely and intelli- 
gently directed, that a people can become or remain 
permanently prosperous and happy ; it is only by means 
of intelligent and educated voters that liberty can be 
preserved; and it is only by means of a more complete 
education among all classes that humanity can rise to 
a higher type of social evolution. There is no slavery 
so oppressive as that of ignorance. 



29. ELEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN 
GOVERNMENT. 

1. The English colonists in America, generally speak- 
ing, were men who were seeking new homes in a new 
world. They brought with them their families and all 
that was most dear to them. Many of them were edu- 
cated men, and all possessed their lull share, according 
to their social condition, of knowledge and attainments 
of that age. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 339 

2. The distinctive characteristic of their settlement is 
the introduction of the civilization of Europe into a 
wilderness, without bringing with it the political insti- 
tutions of Europe. The arts, sciences, and literature of 
England came over with the settlers. That great por- 
tion of the common law which regulates the social and 
personal relations and conduct of men, came also. 

3. The jury came ; the habeas corpus came ; the tes- 
tamentary power came ; and the law of inheritance and 
descent came also, except that part of it which recog- 
nizes the rights of primogeniture, which either did not 
come at all, or soon gave way to the rule of equal par- 
tition of estates anions children. 

4. But the monarchy did not come, nor the aristocracy, 
nor the Church, as an estate of the realm. Political 
institutions were to be framed anew, such as should be 
adapted to the state of things. But it could not be 
doubtful what should be the nature and character of 
these institutions. A general social equality prevailed 
among the settlers, and an equality of political rights 
seemed the natural, if not the necessary consequence. 

Daniel Webster. 






340 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

SECTION III. 
RECITATIONS AND READINGS: POETRY. 

1. THE CROWDED STREET. 

1. Let me move slowly | through the street, 

Filled | with an ever-shifting train, 
Amid the sound | of steps that heat | 

The murmuring walks | like autumn rain. 

2. How fast | the flitting figures | come! 

The mild, the fierce, the stony face ; 
Some | bright with thoughtless smiles, and some | 
Where secret tears | have left their trace. 

3. They pass — to toil, to strife, to rest ; 

To Mills | in which the feast | is spread ; 
To chambers | where the funeral guest | 
In silence | sits | beside the dead S 

4. And some | to happy hbmes repair, 

Where children pressing cheek to cheek, 
With mute caresses \ shall declare | 
The tenderness | they cannot speak. 

5. And sdmc, who walk in calmness he* re, 

Shall shudder when they reach the door | 
Where one | who made their dwelling d£ar, 
Its fl6wer, its light, is seen no more. 

G. Youth, with pale cheek | and slender frame, 
And dreams of greatness [ in thine eye ! 
Goest thou to build an early name, 
Or early | in the task | to diet 

7. Keen son of trade, with eager brow ! 

Who | is now fluttering | in thy snare ? 
Thy golden fortunes, t6wer they now, 
Or melt | the glittering spires | in air ? 






SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 341 

8. Who I of this crowd | to-night | shall tread | 

The dance I till daylight ideam again ? 
Who | sorrow o'er the untimely dead ? 
Who | writhe | in throes | of mortal pain I 

9. Some | famine-struck, shall think how long | 

The cold | dark hours, how slow | the light ; 
And some, w T ho flaunt amid the throng, 
Shall hide | in dens of shhmc | to-night. 

10. Each, where his tasks or pleasures call, 

They pass, and heed each other not. 
There is | who heeds, who holds them all, 
In His large love | and boundless thought. 

11. These struggling tides ( of life | that seem | 

In wayward, aimless course to te'nd, 
Are Eddies | of the mighty stream \ 
That rolls | to its appointed end. Bryant. 



2. THE BUILDEES. 

1. All | are architects of Fdkte, 

Working | in these walls of Time ; 

S6me | with massive deeds | and great, 

Some I with ornaments | of rhyme. 

2. Nothing | useless is | or Vow ; 

Each thing | in its place | is test ; 
And what seems \ but idle shoiu \ 
Strengthens [ and supports the rest. 

3. For the structure \ that we raise, 

Time \ is with materials | filled ; 
Our to-days | and yesterdays | 
Are the blocks \ with which we build. 

4. Truly shape ] and fashion these; 

Leave no yawning gh-ps \ between ; 



342 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Think not, because no man sees, 
Such things | will remain unseen. 

5. In the elder days | of art, 

Builders wrought | with greatest care | 
Each minute | and unseen part ; 
For the gods are everywhere. 

6. Let us do our work | as well, 

Both the unseen \ and the seen ; 
Make the house, where gdds | may dwell, 
Beautiful, entire, and clean. 

7. Else our lives | are incomplete, 

Standing | in these walls of Time; 
Broken stairways, where the feet | 
Stumble | as they seek to climb. 

8. Build to-day, then, strong and sure, 

With a firm | and ample hdsc, 
And | ascending and secure | 
Shall lo-morroLV \ find its place. 

9. Thus alone | can we attain | 

To those turrets, where the eye | 
Sees the world | as one vast plain. 
And one boundless reach | of sky. 



3. PSALM OF LIFE. 

1. Tell me not | in mournful numbers, 

Life | is but an empty drSam ; 
For the soul | is dead \ that slumbers. 
And things | are not | what they seem, 

2. Life | is real! Life | is earnest! 

And the grave | is not its goal ; 
Dust | thou art, to dust retiirnest, 
Was not spoken | of the s6ul. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 343 

3. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 

Is our destined end or way; 
But to tict that each to-morrow | 
Finds us farther | than to-day. 

4. Art | is long, and Time | is fleeting, 

And our hdarts, though stout and brave, 
Still, like muffled drums, are beating | 
Funeral marches | to the grave. 

5. In the world's broad field of battle, 

In the bivouac of Life, 
Be not like dumb, driven cattle ; — 
Be a hero | in the strife ! 

6. Trust no Future, howo'er pleasant ! 

Let the dead Past | bury its dead ! 
Act — act in the living Present! 
Heart within, and God | derheacl. 

7. Lives of great men | all remind us | 

We can make our lives j sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us | 
Foot- prints | on the sands of time. 

8. Foot-prints, that perhaps another, 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main — 
A forlorn | and shipwrecked brother — 
Seeing, shall take heart again. 

9. Let us, then, be up and doing, 

With a heart | for hny fate; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 

Learn to labor | and to whit. Longfellow. 



344 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

4. APOSTROPHE TO THE OCEAN. 

[This 'poem is to be read with slow movement, median stress, expul- 
sive orotund quality, and strong force.} 

1. 

There is a 'pleasure \ in the pathless v:bods, 
There is a rapture \ on the lonely shore, 

There is society, where none intrudes, 
By the deep sea, and music in its roar. 

I love not man the less | but nature | more, 
From these our interviews, in which I steal | 

From all I may be, or have been before, 
To mingle with the universe, and feel | 

What I can ne'er exjoress, yet can not all conceal. 

2. 

Poll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll! 
Ten thousand fleets | sweep over thee in vain. 

Man | marks the earth with riiin — his control | 
Stops with the shore ;— upon the watery pldin | 

The wrecks \ are all thy deed, nor doth remain | 
A shadow of mans ravage, save his bien, 

When, for a moment, like a drop of rain, 
He sinks into thy deaths | with bubbling groan— 

Without a grave, uuknelled, uncoffined, and unknown. 

o 
O. 

The armaments | which thunderstrike the walls | 
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake, | 

And mdnarchs | tremble in their capitals ; 
The oak leviathan, whose huge rib* make | 

Their clay creator | the vain title take | 
Of lord of thee, and arbiter of wdr— 

These | are thy tbys, and, as the snowy flake, 
They melt into thy yeast of wdves, which mar 

Alike | the Armada's pride, or spoils of Trafalgar. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION". 345 



4. 






Thy shores are Empires, changed in all save thee; — 
Assyria, Greece, Eome, Carthage, wliM are they? 

Thy waters | washed them power | while they were free, 
And many a tyrant \ since; their shores obey | 

The stranger, skive, or savage ; their decay | 
Has dried up realms to deserts : not so | thou ; 
. Unchangeable | save to thy wild waves' play, 
Time | writes no wrinkle | on thine azure brow : 

Such as creation's dawn beJield, thou rollest now. 

5. 

Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form | 
Glasses itself in tempests ; in all time, 

Calm or convulsed — in bre'eze, or gale, or storm — 
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime | 

Dark heaving ; boundless, endless, and sublime ! 
The image of eternity — the throne | 

Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime \ 
The monsters of the deep \ are made; each zone | 

Obeys thee ; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. 

6. 

And I have loved thee, ocean ! and my joy | 
Of youthful sports | was on thy breast to be 

Borne, like thy bubbles, onward ; from a boy \ 
I wantoned with thy breakers — they | to me | 

Were a delight ; and, if the freshening se'a | 
Made them a terror, 't was a pleasing fe'ar ; 

For I was, as it were, a child of thee, 
And trusted to thy billows \fdr and near, 

And laid my hand upon thy mane — as do I here. 

Byron. 



34G SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

5. BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 

1. 

There was a sound of revelry by night, 

And Belgium's capital had gathered then 
Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright 

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men ; 
A tliousand hearts beat happily ; and when 

Music arose with its voluptuous swell, 
Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again, 

And all went merry as a marriage-bell; — 
But hush ! hark ! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell ! 

2. 
Did ye not hear it ? — No ; 't was but the wind, 

Or the car rattling o'er the stony street : 
On with the dance ! let joy be unconf ined ; 

No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet 
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet 

But hdrk ! — that heavy sound breaks in once more, 
As if the clbucls its echo would repeat ; 

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before ! 
Arm! ABM! it is — it is — the cannons opening roar! 

3. 

Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, 

And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, 
And' cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago 

Blushed at the praise of their own Ibveliness; 
And there were sudden p&rtings, such as j^ess 

The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs 
Which ne'er might be repeated ; who could guess 

If ever more should meet those mutual eyes, 
Since upon night so sweet such awful vibm could rise '. 

4. 
And there was mounting in hot haste; the sided, 
The mustering squadron, and the clattering cdr, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



347 



Went pouriug forward with impetuous speed, 
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war; 
And the deep thunder peed on peal afar ; 

And near, the beat of the alarming drum 
Roused up the soldier ere the morning star; 
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb, 
Or whispering with white lips : " The foe ! They come ! 
they come /" 

5. 
And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves, 

Dewy with nature's tdar-drops, as they pass, 
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, 

Over the unrcturning or are — alas ! — 
Ere evening to be trodden like the grass, 

Which now beneath them, but above shall grow 
In its next verdure, when this fiery mass 

Of living valor, rolling on the foe, 
And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low 

6. 
Last noon beheld them full of lusty life; 
Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay ; 
The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife; 

The morn, the marshaling in arms — the day, 
Battle's magnificently stem array ! 

.The thunder-clouds close ber it, which, when rdnt, 
The earth is covered thick with other clay — 

Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pe'nt, 
Rider and horse — friend, foe — in one red burial blent. 

Byron's Ckilde Harold. 



6. SANTA FILOMEXA. 

This poem was written in honor of Florence Nightingale, an Eng- 
lish lady, distinguished for her philanthropy, and for her devotion 
to the sick and wounded soldiers in the Crimean war. "Filomena" 
is the Latin for "Nightingale." There is a Saint Filomena, who is 



348 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

represented as floating down from heaven attended by two angela 
bearing the lily, palm, and javelin, and beneath, in the foreground, 
the sick and maimed, wlw are healed by her intercession. 

1. Whene'er a noble deed I is wrought, 
Whene'er is spoke | a noble thought, 

Oar hearts, in glad surprise, 
To higher levels | rise. 

2. The tidal wave | of deeper souls | 
Into our inmost being | rolls, 

And lifts us | unawares | 
Out of all meaner cares. 

3. Honor to those | whose words and deeds | 
Thus help us | in our daily ne'eds. 

And | by their overflow | 
Raise us | from what is low ! 

4. Thus thought I, as by night I rdad | 
Of the great army | of the de'ad, 

The trenches | cold and damp, 
The starved | and frozen camp ; 

5. The wounded | from the battle plain, 
In dreary hospitals of pain — 

The cheerless corridors, 
The cold | and stony floors. 

G. Lo ! in that house of misery | 
A lady | with a lamp | I see | 

Pass through the glimmering gloom. 

And ilit | from room to room. 

7. And slow | as in a dream of bliss, 
The speechless sufferer | turns to kiss | 
Her shadow, as it falls | 
Upon the darkening walls. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 349 

8. As if a door in heaven | should be | 
Opened | and then closed suddenly, 

The vision | came and w^nt, 
The light shone | and was spent. 

9. On England's annals, the long- 
Hereafter | of her speech and song, 

That light | its rays | shall cast | 
From portals | of the past. 

10. A Lady with a Lamp | shall stand | 
In the great history of the land, 

A noble type of good, 
Heroic womanhood. 

11. Nor even shall be wanting here | 
The palm, the lily, and the spear, 

The symbols | that of yore | 

Santa Tilomena bore. Longfellow. 



7. THE DEATH STEUGGLE. 

[An example of animated and impassioned description, characterized 
by fast movement and radical stress.] 

"Now yield thee, or, by Him who made 
The world, thy heart's blood dyes my blade!" 
" Thy threats, thy mercy I defy ! 
Let recreant yield, who fears to die!' 
— Like adder darting from his coil, 
Like wolf that dashes through the toil, 
Like mountain-cat who guards her young, 
Full at Fitz-James's throat he sprung; 
Eeceived, but recked not of a wound, 
And locked his arms his foeman round. — 
Now, gallant Saxon, hold thine own ! 
No maidens arm is round thee thrown! 



>50 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

That desperate grasp thy frame might feel 

Through bars of brass and triple steel !— 

They tug, they strain ! down, down, they go, 

The Gael above, Fitz-James below. 

The Chieftain's gripe his throat compressed; 

His knee was planted in his breast; 

His clotted locks lie backward threw, 

Across his brow his hand he dreV, ^ 

From blood and mist to clear his sight, 

Then gleamed aloft his dagger bright! 

—But hate and fury ill supplied 

The stream of life's exhausted tide ; 

And all too late the advantage came, 

To turn the odds of deadly game; 

For, while the dagger gleamed on high, ^ 

Reeled soul and sense, reeled brain and eye. 

Down came the blow ! but in the heath 

The erring blade found bloodless sheath. 

The struggling foe may now unclasp 

The fainting Chief's relaxing grasp; 

Unwounded from the dreadful close, 

But breathless all, Fitz-James arose. scorr. 



8. SANDALPHON. 

1 Have you read in the Talmud of old, 
In the Legends the Rabbins have told 

Of the limitless realms of the air; 
Have you read it— the marvelous story 
Of Saudalphon, the Angel of Glory, 

Sandalphon, the Angel of Braver ? 

2. How, erect, at the outermosl gates 
Of the City Celestial he waits, 

With his feet on the ladder ol light, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 351 

That, crowded with angels unnumbered, 
By Jacob was seen, as he slumbered 
Alone in the desert at night ? 

3. The Angels of Wind and of Fire 
Chant only one hymn, and expire 

With the song's irresistible stress — 
Expire in their rapture and wonder, 
As harp-strings are broken asunder 

By music they throb to express. 

4. But serene in the rapturous throng, 
Unmoved by the rush of the song, 

With eyes unimpassioned and slow, 
Amonq- the dead anq-els, the deathless 
Sandalphon stands listening, breathless, 

To sounds that ascend from below T ; — 

5. From the spirits on earth that adore, 
From the souls that entreat and implore 

In the fervor and passion of prayer; 
From the hearts that are broken with losses, 
And weary with dragging the crosses 

Too heavy for mortals to bear. 

6. And he gathers the prayers as he stands, 
And thev change into flowers in his hands, 

■J O ' 

Into garlands of purple and red ; 
And beneath the great arch of the portal, 
Through the streets of the City Immortal 

Is wafted the fragrance they shed. 

7. It is but a legend I know, 
A fable, a phantom, a show, 

Of the ancient Babbinical lore ; 
Yet the old mediaeval tradition, 
The beautiful, strange superstition, 

But haunts me and holds me the more. 



ouZ SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

8. When I look from my window at night, 
And the welkin above is all white, 

All throbbing and panting with stars, 
Among them, majestic, is standing 
Sandalphon, the angel, expanding 

His pinions in nebulous bars. 

9. And the legend, I feel, is a part 

Of the hunger and thirst of the heart — 

The frenzy and fire of the brain, 
That grasps at the fruitage forbidden, 
The golden pomegranates of Eden, 

To quiet itS fever and pain. Longfellow. 

9. THE OLD CONTINENTALS. 

[This piece may be rendered with a considerable degree of imitative 
reading. It is characterized by declamatory force, radical stress, and 
orotund, quality. Let the class mark for rlietorical pauses, cm^'i 
and inflections. ] 

1. In their ragged regimentals, 
Stood the old Continental*, 

Yielding ndt, 
When the Grenadiers were langing, 
And like hail fell the plunging 
Ccbmo?i-shot ; 
When the files 
Of the isles, 
From the smoky night encampment bore the banner of 
the rampant 

Unicorn, 
And grummer, grummer, grummer, rolled the roll of the 
drummer, 

Through the morn ! 

2. Then with eyes to the front all, 
And with guns TwrizdntcU. 

Stood our sires; 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 353 

And the balls whistled deadly, 
And in streams flashing redly 
Blazed the fires ; 
As the roar 
On the shore, 
Swept the strong battle-breakers o'er the green-sodded 
acres 

Of the plain ; 
And louder, louder, louder, cracked the black gunpowder, 
Cracked amain ! 

3. Xow like smiths at their forges 
"Worked the red St. George's 

Cannoniers ; 
And the villainous "saltpeter" 
Eang a fierce, discordant me'ter 

Hound their ears ; 

As the swift 

Storm-drift, 
With hot, sweeping anger, came the horse-guards' clangor 

On our flanks. 
Then higher, higher, higher, burned the old-fashioned fire 

Through the ranks ! 

4. Then the old-fashioned Colonel 
Galloped through the white infernal 

Powder-cloud; 
And his broadsword was swinging, 
And his brazen throat was ringing 

Trumjjct-lowd. 

Then the blue 

Bullets neV, 
And the hooper-jackets re'dden at the touch of the leaden 

Bijk-breath. 
And rounder, rounder, rounder, roared the iron six- r j?ounder, 

Hurling death! mcMasteb* 

23 



354 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



10. THE WINDS. 



[Head this poem line by line, and let the class repeat, in concert, 
after you. Then require each pupil, in turn, to go upon the platform 
and read one stanza, subject to the criticism of the class and teacher.'] 

1. 

Ye winds, ye unseen currents of the air, 
Softly ye played, a few brief hours ago; 

Ye bore the murmuring bee ; ye tossed the hair 
O'er maiden cheeks that took a fresher glow ; 

Ye rolled the round white cloud through depths of blue, 

Ye shook from shaded flowers the lingering dew; 

Before you the catalpa's blossom fle*w, 

Light blossoms, dropping on the grass like snow. 

2. 
What change is this ? Ye take the cataract's sound ; 

Ye take the whirlpool's fury and its might ; 
The mountain shudders as ye sweep the ground ; 

The valley ivbods lie prone beneath your flight; 
The clouds before you shoot like eagles past; 
The homes of men are rocking in your blast ; 
Ye lift the roofs like autumn leaves, and cast, 

Skyward, the whirling fragments out of sight. 

o 

O. 

The weary fowls of heaven make wing in vain, 

To 'scape your wrath; ye seize and dash them dead; 

Against the earth ye drive the roaring rain ; 
The harvest field becomes a river's bed ; 

And tbrrcnts tumble from the hills around ; 

Plains turn to hikes, and villages are drowned; 

And wailing voices, midst the tempest's sound, 
Rise, as the rushing waters swell and spread. 

4. 
Ye dart upon the deep; and straight is heard 
A wilder roar; and men grow pale and pray; 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 355 

Ye fling its floods around you, as a bird 

Flings o'er his shivering plumes the fountain's spray. 
See ! to the breaking mast the sailor clings ; 
Ye scoop the ocean to its briny springs, 
And take the mountain billoiv on your wings, 

And pile the wreck of navies round the bay. 

5. 
Why rage ye thus ? — no strife for liberty 

Has made you mad ; no tyrant, strong through fe*ar, 
Has chained your pinions till ye wrenched them frde, 

And rushed into the unmeasured atmosphere; 
For ye were born in freedom where ye blow ; 
Free o'er the mighty deep to come and go ; 
Earth's solemn woods were yours, her wastes of snow, 

Her isles where summer blossoms all the year. 

G. 
ye wild winds; a mightier power than yours 

In chains upon the shore of Europe lies ; 
The sceptered throng, whose fetters he endures, 

Watch his mute throes w r ith terror in their eyes ; 
And arme'd ivarriors all around him stand, 
And, as he struggles, tighten every band, 
And lift the heavy spear, with threatening hand, 

To pierce the victim, should he strive to rise. 

7. 
Yet oh ! when that wronged Spirit of our race 

Shall bre'ak, as soon he must, his long-worn chains, 
And leap in freedom from his p"is0?i-place, 

Lord of his ancient hills and fruitful plains, 
Let him not rise, like these mad winds of air, 
To waste the loveliness that time could spare, 
To fill the earth with woe, and blot the fair 

Unconscious breast with blood from liftman vdins. 



356 SCHOOL ELOCUTION 



But may he like the Spring-time come abroad, 
Who crumbles Winters gyves with gentle might, 

When in the genial breeze, the breath of God, 
Come spouting up the unsealed springs to light ; 

Flowers start from their dark prisons at his feet, 

The wdods, long dumb, awake to hymnmgs sweet ; 

And morn and eve, whose glimmerings almost m<5e1 
Crowd back to narrow bounds the ancient night 



Brvant. 



11. THE DAY IS DONE. 

1. The day is (lone, and the darkness 

Falls from the wings of Night, 
As a feather is wafted downward 
From an eagle in his flight 

2. I see the lights of the village 

Gleam through the rain and the mist, 
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me 
That my soul cannot resist. 

3. A feeling of sadness and longing, 

That is not akin to pain, 
And resembles sorrow only, 

As the mist resembles the rain. 

4. Come, read to me some pbem, ^ 

Some simple and heartfelt lay, 
That shall soothe this restless feeling, 
And banish the thoughts of day. 



b. 



N6t from the grand old masters, 
Not from the bards sublime, 

Whose distant footsteps echo 
Through the corridors of Time. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 357 

6. For, like strains of martial music, 

Their mighty thoughts suggest 
Life's endless toil and endeavor ; 
And to-night I long for rest. 

7. Read from some humbler poet, 

Whose songs gushed from his heart, 
As shoivcrs from the clouds of summer, 
Or tears from the eyelids start; 

8. Who, through long days of labor, 

And nights devoid of dase, 
Still heard in his soul the music 
Of wonderful melodies. 

9. Such songs have power to quiet 

The restless pulse of care, 

And come like the benediction 

That follows after prayer. 

10. Then read from the treasured volume 

The poem of thy choice, 
And lend to the rhyme of the poet 
The beauty of thy voice. 

11. And the night shall be filled with music, 

And the cares that infest the day, 
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, 
And as silently steal away. 



Longfellow. 



12. THE BATTLE-FIELD. 

Once this soft turf, this rivulet's sands, 
Were trampled | by a hurrying croivd, 

And fiery hearts | and armed hands \ 
Encountered in the bdttlc-clovA. 



358 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

2. Ah' ! never shall the land forget | 

How gushed the life-blood | of her brave — 
Gtished, warm with hope and courage ye% 
Upon the soil \ they fought to save. 

3. Now all is calm, and frdsh and still; 

Alone the chirp of flitting bird, 
And talk of children on the hill, 

And bell of wandering kine | are heard. 

4. No solemn host goes trailing by 

The black-mouthed giin | and staggering wain ; 
Men start not at the odttle-ery ; 
Oh, be it never heard again ! 

5. Soon rested | those who fought ; but thou, 

Who minglest in the harder strife | 
For truths | which men receive not now, 
Thy warfare | only ends with life. 

6. A friendless warfare ! lingering long | 

Through weary day | and weary year. 
A wild and many-weaponed throng | 
Hang on thy front, and flank, and rear. 

7. Yet nerve thy spirit | to the proof, 

And blench not at thy chosen lot; 
The timid good may stand aloof, 

The sage may frown — yet faint thou 7ibt. 

8. Nor heed the shaft | too surely cast, 

The foul | and hissing bolt of scorn ; 
For with thy side | shall dwell, at last, 
The victory | of endurance | born. 

9. Triith | crushed to e'arth | shall rise again ; 

The eternal years | of Gbd are hers ; 
But Error | wounded, writhes in pain, 
And dies | among his wbrshijicrs. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 359 

10. Yea, though thou lie upon the dust, 

When they who helped thee flee in fdar, 
Die | full of hope and manly trust, 
Like those who fell in battle here. 

11. Another hand | the sword shall wield, 

Another hand | the standard wave, 
Till from the trumpet's mouth | is pdaled 
The blast of triumph | o'er thy grave. 

Beyaitt. 



13. HYMN TO MONT BLANC. 

[This is a difficult piece of reading. It should be first analyzed 
grammatically and rhetorically, to enable the pupil to comprehend the 
full meaning. The reading, in general, will be characterized by me- 
dian stress, orotund quality, strong force, and slow movement.'] 

Hast thou a charm to stay the morning-star 
In his steep course ? So long he seems to pause 
On thy bald, awful he'ad, sovereign Blanc! 
The Arve and Arveiron at thy base 
Eave ceaselessly ; but thou, most awful form, 
Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines, 
How silently ! Around thee and above, 
Deep is the air and dark; substantial black; 
An ebon mass : methinks thou fiercest it 
As with a ivedgc ! But when I look again, 
It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, 
Thy habitation from eternity. 

dread and silent Mount ! I gazed upon thee, 
Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, 

Didst vanish from my thought : entranced in prayer, 

1 worshiped the Invisible alone. 

Yet, like some sweet, beguiling melody — 
So sweet, we know not we are listening to it — 
Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought, 
Yea, with my life and life's own secret joy; 



3G0 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Till the dilating soul— enrapt, transfused 

Into the mighty vision passing — thgre, 

As in her natural form, swelled vast to Heaven ! 

Awake, my soul ! not only passive praise 
Thou owest; not alone these swelling tears, 
Mute thanks, and secret ecstasy. Awake, 
Voice of sweet song ! Awake, my heart, auah: ! 
Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn. 

Thbu first and chief, sole sovereign of the vale '. 
0, struggling with the darkness all the night, 
And visited all night by troops of stars, 
Or when they climb the sky or when they sink ; 
Companion of the morning-star at dawn, 
Thyself Earth's rosy star, and of the dawn 
Co-herald ; wake, wake, and utter praise ! 
Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in earth ? 
Who filled thy countenance with rosy light? 
Who made thee parent of perpetual streams? 

And you, ye live wild torrents, fiercely glad! 
Who called you forth from night and utter death, 
From dark and icy caverns called you forth, 
Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks, 
For ever shattered and the same for ever? 
Whb gave you your invulnerable life, 
Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, 
Unceasing thunder and eternal fbam ? 
And who commcinded (and the silence came), 
"Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest?" 

Ye kc-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow 
Adown enormous ravines slope amain — 
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, 
And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge! 
Motionless torrents! silent cataracts! — 
Who made you glorious as the gates of Ehaven 
Beneath the keen full moon? Who bade the s&fl 
Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living Jlbwers 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 361 

Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet ? — 

God ! let the torrents, like a shout of nations 

Answer ! and let the ice-plains echo, God ! 

God ! sing ye meadow-streams with gladsome voice ! 

Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds ! 

And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow, 

And in their perilous fall shall thunder, God ! 

Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost ! 

Ye loild ghats sporting round the eagle s nest ! 

Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain-storm ! 

Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds ! 

Ye signs and wonders of the elements ! 

Utter forth " God ! " and fill the hills with prhise. 

Once more, hoar mount ! with thy sky-pointing peak, 
Oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard, 
Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serine, 
Into the depth of clouds that veil thy breast — 
Thou, too, again, stupendous mountain I thou, 
That, as I raise my hdad, awhile bowed low 
In adoration, upward from thy base 
Slow-traveling with dim eyes suffused with tdars, 
Solemnly sternest, like a vapory clbucl, 
To rise before me — rise, oh, ever rise; 
Rise, like a cloud of Incense, from the earth ! 
Thou hingly spirit throned among the hills, 
Thou dread ambassador from earth to heaven, 
Great hlcrarch ! tell thou the silent sky, 
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, 
Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God I 

Coleridge. 



362 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

14. MORNING HYMN. 

[This piece is characterized by slow movement t median stress, and 
orotund quality.] 

These are thy gldrious wbrks, Parent of good, 

Almighty ! Thine this universal frame, 

Thus wondrous fair; Thyself hbiv wondrous then! 

Unspeakable, who sit'st above these heavens 

To us invisible, or dimly seen 

In these thy lowest works ; yet these declare 

Thy gdodness beyond thought, and power divine. 

Speak, ye who best can tell, ye sons of tight, 

Angels; for ye behold him, and with songs 

And choral symphonies, day without night, 

Circle his throne rejoicing; ye, in Heaven, 

On earth, join all ye creatures, to extol 

Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. 

Fairest of stars, last in the train of night, 

If better thou belong not to the dawn, 

Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn 

With thy bright circlet, prdise him in thy sphdre, 

While cUiy arises, that sweet hour of prime. 

Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and sdul, 

Acknowledge him thy greater ; sound his praise 

In thy eternal course, both when thou climlJst, 

And when high noon hast gained, and when thou faWst. 

Mbon, that now meet'st the orient Sun, now ily'si. 

With the fixed sUtrs, fixed in their orb that flie^ ; 

And ye five other wandering fires, that move 

In mystic dance not without song, resound 

His praise, who out of darkness called up light. 

Air, and ye elements, the eldest birth 

Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run, 

Perpetual circle, multiform ; and mix 

And nourish all things; let your ceaseless chun 

Vary to our great Maker still new pniise. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 363 

Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise 

From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray, 

Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold, 

In honor to the world's great Author rise; 

"Whether to deck with clouds the uncolored sky, 

Or wet the thirsty eartli with falling showers, 

Bising or falling, still advance Ms praise. 

His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters hlow, 

Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, -yejnnes, 

With every plant, in sign of worship, wave. 

Fountains, and ye that warble as ye flow, 

Melodious murmurs, warbling, tune his prtdse. 

Join voices all, ye living souls : ye birds, 

That singing, up to heaven's gate ascend, 

Bear on your wings and in your notes Ms prhise. 

Milton. 



15. THANATOPSIS. 

[As a preliminary exercise, let pupils name all the phrases and 
clauses, and tell what each modifies ; also, call on them to parse the 
more difficult words. The reading of this poem is characterized by 
slovj movement, median stress, and orotund, quality.'] 

To him | who | in the love of Nature \ holds 
Communion | with her visible forms, she speaks | 
A vdrious language; for his gayer hours | 
She has a voice of gUtdncss, and a smile 
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides | 
Into his darker musings with a mild | 
And healing sympathy, that steals away 
Their sharpness | ere he is aware. When thoughts | 
Of the last bitter hour | come like a blight | 
Over thy spirit, and sad images | 
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, 
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house, 
Make thee to shudder | and grow sick at heart, 



364 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Go forth I under the open sky, and list 

To Nature's teachings; while from all around — 

Earth and her wdters, and the depths of air — 

Comes | a still voice : — Yet a few days j and thee j 

The all-beholding sun | shall see no more | 

In all his course ; nor yet | in the cold [/round, 

Where thy pale form | was laid with many tears, 

Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist | 

Thy Image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim 

Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again; 

And, lost each human trace, surrendering up 

Thine individual be'ing, shalt thou go | 

To mix forever with the elements, 

To be a brother | to the insensible rbch \ 

And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain | 

Turns with his share, and treads upon. The bah 

Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold. 

Yet not to thine eternal resting-place ] 
Shalt thou retire alone— nor could'st thou wish \ 
Couch m6re magnificent. Thou shalt lie down | 
With patriarchs | of the infant wbrld — with langs, 
The powerful of the earth — the vnsc, the good, 
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages pdst, 
All | in one mighty sepidchcr. The Mils, 
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun; the wiles, 
Stretching in pensive quietness between ; 
The venerable woods; rivers, that move 
In majesty ; and the complaining brboks, 
That make the meadows grim; and, poured round 6X1 
Old oceans gray and melancholy waste — 
Are but the solemn decorations | all \ 
Of the great tomb of man! The golden shn, 
The plhnets, all the infinite host of hearen, 
Are shining on the sad abodes of death, 
Through the still lapse of ages. All that triad 
The globe | are but a hand fid | to the tribes 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 365 

That slumber in its bosom. Take the wings 

Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce, 

Or lose thyself | in the continuous woods | 

Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound [ 

Save his own dashings — yet | the dead | are there ; 

And millions | in those solitudes, since hrst 

The flight of years began, have laid them down | 

In their last sleep : the dead | reign there | alone ! 

So shalt thou rest ; and what if thou withdraw | 

Unheeded by the living, and no friend \ 

Take note of thy departure ! All that breathe \ 

Will share thy destiny. The gdy \ will laugh 

When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care | 

Plod on, and each one, as before, will chase 

His favorite phantom ; yet all these | shall leave 

Their mirth and their employments, and shall come | 

And make their bed | with thee. As the long train 

Of ages glides away, the sons of me'n — 

The youth \ in life's green spring, and he who goes | 

In the full strength of years, mcltron and maid, 

The bowed with age, the Infant | in the smiles | 

And beauty of its innocent age | cut off — 

Shall | one by one | be gathered to thy side | 

By those | who in their turn | shall follow them. 

So live, that when thy summons | comes to join | 
The innumerable caravan | that moves | 
To that mysterious realm where each shall take 
His chamber | in the silent halls of ddath, 
Thou go, not like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon ; but, sustained and soothed | 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave | 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down | to pleasant dreams. 

Bryant. 






366 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

16. ELEGY WRITTEN IX A COUNTRY 
CHURCHYARD. 

1. 

The curfew | tolls the knell | of parting day ; 

The lowing herd | winds slowly | o'er the Ua ; 
The pldwman | homeward | plods his weary way, 

And leaves the world | to darkness | and to mh. 

2. 

Now fades | the glimmering landscape | on the sight, 
And all the air | a solemn stillness | holds, 

Save where the beetle | wheels his droning flight, 
And drowsy tinldings \ lull the distant folds; 

3. 

Save | that from yonder | ivy-mantled tower, 
The moping owl | does to the moon | complain | 

Of such as, wand'ring near her secret bower, 
Molest her ancient, solitary reign. 

4. 
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shd-de, 

Where heaves the turf | in many a moldering heap, 
Each | in his narrow cell | forever laid, 

The rude fdrefathers \ of the hamlet | sleep. 



The breezy call \ of incense-breathing morn, 

The swallow \ twittering | from the straw-built shed, 

The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, 

No more | shall rouse thdm | from their lowly bed. 

6. 
For them | no more the blazing hearth | shall burn, 

Or busy hduscwife \ ply her evening care ; 
No children \ run | to lisp their sire's return, 

Or climb his knees \ the envied Jclss | to share. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 367 

7. 

Oft did the harvest | to their sickle | yield, 

Their furrow | oft | the stubborn glebe | has broke ; 

How jocund | did they drive their team a-field ! 

How bowed | the woods | beneath their sturdy stroke ! 

8. 

Let not Ambition | mock their useful toil, 
Their homely joys, and destiny | obscure; 

Nor Grandeur | hear | with a disdainful smile | 
The short | and simple annals | of the poor. 

9. 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth \ e'er gave, 

Aw T ait | alike | the inevitable hour : 

The paths of glory | lead | but to the grave. 

10. 
Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, 

If Memory | o'er their tomb | no trophies raise, 
Where, through the long-drawn aisle | and fretted vault, 

The pealing anthem | swells the note | of praise. 

11. 

Can storied lim, or animated bust, 

Back to its mansion | call the fleeting breath ? 
Can Honors voice | provoke the silent diist, 

Or Flattery soothe | the dull, cold ear | of Death ? 

12. 

Perhaps in this neglected spot | is | laid j 

Some heart \ once pregnant | -with celestial fire — 

Hands | that the rod of empire | might have swayed, 
Or waked to ecstasy | the living lyre : 



3G8 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

13. 

But Knowledge | to their eyes | her ample page, 
Eicli with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll ; 

Chill Penury | repressed their noble rage, 
And froze the genial current | of the soul. 

14. 

Full many a gem | of purest ray serene | 
The dark, unfathomed caves of decern | bear ; 

Full many a flower \ is born to blush unse'en, 
And waste | its sweetness | on the desert air. 

15. 

Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless brdast, 
The little tyrant | of his fields | withstood ; 

Some mute, inglorious Milton | here may rest — 
Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood. 

16. 

The applause | of listening senates | to command, 
The threats | of pain and ruin | to despise, 

To scatter plenty | o'er a smiling land, 

And read their history | in a nation's eyes, 

17. 

Their lot \ forbade; nor circumscribed | al6ne | 
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined ; 

Forbade to wade | through slaughter | to a throne, 
And shut the gates | of mercy | on mankind ; 

18. 

The struggling pangs | of conscious trhtli | to hide, 
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, 

Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride | 
With incense I kindled at the Muses flame. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 369 

19. 
Far from the madding crowd's | ignoble strife, 

Their sober wishes | never learned to stray ; 
Along the cool, sequestered vale | of life | 

They kept the noiseless tdnor | of their way. 

20. 
Yet e'en these bones | from insult to protect, 

Some frail memdrial | still erected nigh, 
With uncouth rhymes | and shapeless sculpture | decked, 

Implores the passing tribute | of a sigh. 

21. 
Their name, their ye'ars, spelt by the unlettered Muse, 

The place of fame \ and elegy | supply ; 
And many a holy text | around she straws, 

That teach the rustic moralist | to die. 

22. 
For who, to dumb forgetfulness | a preV, 

This pleasing, anxious being | e'er resigned, 
Left the warm precincts | of the cheerful day, 

Nor cast | one longing, lingering look \ behind? 

23. 
On some fond breast | the parting soul \ relies, 

Some pious drops | the closing eye requires ; 
E'en from the tomb | the voice of Nature | cries, 

E'en in our ashes | live | their wonted fires. 

24. 
For the'e, who, mindful of the unhonored ddad, 

Dost | in these lines | their artless tale | relate, 
If chance, by lonely contemplation le'd, 

Some kindred spirit \ shall inquire thy fate — 

24 



370 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

25. 
Haply | some hoary-headed swain | may say : ^ 

" Oft have we seen him, at the peep of dawn, 
Brushing with hasty steps | the dews away, 

To meet the sun | upon the upland lawn. 

26. 
" There, at the foot | of yonder nodding beech, 

That wreathes its old, fantastic roots so high, 
His listless length | at noontide | would he stretch, 

And pore upon the brook | that babbles by. 

27. 
" Hard by yon wood, now smiling | as in scorn, 

Muttering his wayward fancies, he would rove; 
Now drooping, woful-wan, like one forlorn, 

Or crazed with cclrc, or crossed in hopeless loir. 

28. 
" One morn | I missed him | on the 'customed hill, 

Along the hdath, and near his favorite tre*e ; 
Another | came, nor yet beside the rill, 

Nor up the Idivn, nor at the wood | was he ; 

29. 
"The ndxt, with dirges due, in sad array, 

Slow | through the church-way path | we saw him borne 
Approach and reud | (for thou canst re'ad) | the lay | 

Graved on the stone | beneath yon aged thorn." 

THE EPITAPH. 

Here | rests his head | upon the lap of earth, 
A youth | to Fortune \ and to Fame \ unknown ; 

Fair Seienec | frowned not | on his humble Hfih, 
And Melancholy | marked him | for her bwn. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 371 

31. 

Large | was his bounty, and his soul \ sincere; 

Heaven | did a recompense | as largely send : 
He gave to misery — all he had — a tear ; 

He gained from Heaven — 'twas all he wished — a friend. 



No further seek | his merits | to disclose, 

Or draw his frailties | from their dread abode 

(There | they alike | in trembling hope | repose) — 
The bosom \ of his Father | and his God. 

Thomas Gray. 



17. DANIEL WEBSTER 

1. When life hath run its largest round [ 

Of toil and triumph, joy and woe, 

How brief | a storied page is found | 

To compass all its outward show! 

2. The world-tried sailor tires and droops; 

His flag is r^nt, his keel forgot ; 
His farthest voyages | seem but loops | 
That float | from life's entangled knot. 

3. But when within the narrow space | 

Some larger soul hath lived and wrought, 
Whose sight | was open to embrace | 

The boundless realms | of deed and thought, 

4. When, stricken by the freezing blast, 

A nation's living pillars fall, 
How rich | the storied page, how vast, 
A word, a whisper, can recall ! 

5. No medal | lifts its fretted face, 

Nor speaking marble | cheats your eye, 






372 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Yet, while these pictured lines I trace, 
A living Image | passes by : 

G. A roof | beneath the mountain pines ; 
The cloisters | of a hill-girt plain ; 
The front of life's embattled lines ; 
A mound | beside the heaving main. 

7. The"se | are the scenes : a hoy appears ; 

Set life's round dial | in the sun, 
Count the swift arc | of seventy years. 
His frame | is dust ; his task | is done. 

8. Yet pause upon the noontide hour, 

Ere the declining sun | has laid | 
His bleaching rays | on manhood's power, 
And look upon the mighty shade. 

9. No gloom | that stately shape can hide, 

No change | uncrown its brow ; behold ! 
Dark, calm, large-fronted, lightning-eyed, 
Earth has no double | from its mold. 

10. Ere from the fields | by valor won | 

The battle-smoke | had rolled away, 
And bared the blood-red setting sun, 
His eyes | were opened on the day. 

11 His kind | was but a shelving strip | 

Black | with the strife | that made it freV ; 
He lived | to see its banners dip | 
Their fringes | in the western sen. 

12. The boundless pr&iries \ learned his name, 
His words | the mountain bchoes knew, 

The northern breezes | swept his fame | 
From icy lake | to warm bayou. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 373 

13. Ill toil I he lived; in p^ace | lie died; 

When life's full cycle was complete, 
Put off his robes of power and pride, 
And laid them | at his Master's feet. 

14. His rest | is by the storm-swept waves | 

Whom life's wild tempests | roughly tried, 
Whose heart | was like the streaming caves | 
Of ocean, throbbing at his side. 

15. Death's cold white hand | is like the snow | 

Laid softly | on the furrowed hill — 
It hides the broken seams below, 

And leaves the summit | brighter still. 

16. In vain the envious tongue upbraids ; 

His name | a nation's heart shall kdep | 
Till morning's latest sunlight fades | 

On the blue tablet | of the deep ! holmes. 



18. ST. AUGUSTINE'S LADDEE. 

1. Saint Augustine ! w T ell hast thou said, 

That | of our vices | we can frame | 
A ladder, if we will but tread | 

Beneath our feet | each deed of shame ! 

2. All common things, each day's events, 

That | with the hour | begin and end, 
Our pleasures | and our discontents, 

Are rounds | by which | we may ascend. 



a. 



The low desire, the base design, 
That makes another's virtues | ldss 

The revel ( of the ruddy wine, 
And all occasions | of excdss; 



374 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

4. The longing | for ignoble things 

The strife | for triumph | more than truth ; 
The hardening of the heart, that brings | 
Irreverence | for the dreams of youth ; 

5. All thoughts of ill ; all evil de'eds, 

That have their root \ in thoughts of ill; 
Whatever hinders | or impedes | 
The action | of the noble will;— 

6. All these | must first | be trampled down | 

Beneath our feet, if we would gain | 
In the bright fields | of fair renown | 
The right | of eminent domain. 

7. We have not wings, we can not soar; 

But we have feet | to scale and climb, 
By slow degrees, by more and more, 
The cloudy summits | of our time. 

8. The distant mountains, that nprear | 

Their solid bastions | to the skies, 
Are crossed | by pathways, that appear | 
As we | to higher levels j rise. 

9. The heights | by great men | reached and kept | 

Were not attained | by sudden flight, 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upward | in the night. 

10 Standing | on what | too long | we bore I 

With shoulders bent | and downcast eyes, 
We may discern—unseen bef6re— 

A path | to higher destinies ; 

11. Nor deem the irrevocable Past | 

As wholly wasted, wholly vain, 
If, rising on its wrdeks, at hist | 
'To something nobler | we attain. homrwium. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 375 

19. RING OUT, WILD BELLS. 

[This extract should be read with radical and median stress, strong 
force, and strongly contrasted inflections. Let the class mark for em- 
phasis and inflection.] 

1. Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, 

The flying cloud, the frosty light ; 
The year is dying in the night; 
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. 

2. Ring out the old, ring in the new, 

Ring, happy bells, across the snow ; 
The year is going ; let him go ; 
Ring out the false, ring in the true. 

3. Ring out the grief that saps the mind, 

For those that here we see no more ; 
Ring out the feud of rich and poor, 
Ring in redress to all mankind. 

4. Ring out a slowly dying cause, 

And ancient forms of party strife, 
Ring in the nobler modes of life, 
With sweeter manners, purer laws. 

5. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, 

The faithless coldness of the times ; 
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, 
But rinsj the fuller minstrel in. 

6. Ring out false pride, in place and blood, 

The civic slander and the spite ; 
Ring in the love of truth and right, 
Ring in the common love of good. 

7. Ring out old shapes of foul disease, 

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold, 
Ring out the thousand woes of old, 
Ring in the thousand years of peace. 



376 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

8. Ring in the valiant man and free, 

The larger heart, the kindlier hand; 
King out the darkness of the land, 
Kino- in the Christ that is to be. tenntson. 



20. SUMMER RAIN. 

[This extract should be read icith varying degrees of force, 
with the radical stress, ranging from unim passioned to emotional 
The last two stanzas afford scope for "imitative expression."] 

1. Now on the hills I hear the thunder mutter; 

The wind is gathering in the west ; 
The upturned leaves first whiten and flutter, 

Then droop to a fitful rest; 
Up from the stream with sluggish flap 

Struggles the gull, and floats away; 
Nearer and nearer rolls the thunder-clap; 

"We shall not see the sun go down to-day. 
Now leaps the wind on the sleepy marsh, 

And tramples the grass with terrified feet; 
The startled river turns leaden and harsh— 

You can hear the quick heart of the tempest heat. 

2. Look! look!— that livid flash! 

And instantly follows the rattling thunder, 
As if some cloud-crag, split asunder, 

Fell, splintering with a ruinous crash, 
On the earth, which crouches in silence under; 

And now a solid gray wall of rain 
Shuts off the landscape, mile by mile. 

For a breath's space I see the blue wood again, 
And, ere the next heart-beat, the wind-hurled pile, 

That seemed but now a league aloof, 

Bursts rattling over the sun-parehed roof. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 377 

3. Against the windows the storm comes dashing; 
Through tattered foliage the hail tears crashing; 
The blue lightning flashes ; 
The rapid hail clashes ; 

The white waves are tumbling; 
And, in one baffled roar, 

Like the toothless sea mumbling 
A rock-bristled shore, 

The thunder is rumbling, 

And crashing, and crumbling — 
Will silence return never more ? Lowell. 



21. HYMN TO THE NOETH STAE. 

[The reading of this poem ivill be characterized by slow movement, 
median stress, orotund quality, and middle key.] 

1. 

The sad and solemn night 
Hath yet her multitude | of cheerful fires ; 

The glorious host of light | 
Walk the dark atmosphere | till she retires ; 
All through her silent watches, gliding slow, 
Her constellations come, and climb the heavens, and go. 

2. 
Bay, too, hath many a star | 
To grace his gorgeous reign, as bright as tlihj : 

Through the blue fields afar, 
Unsden, they follow in his flaming way: 
Many a bright lingerer, as the eve grows dim, 
Tells what a radiant troop | arose and set with him. 

o 
O. 

And thou | dost see them rise, 
Star of the Pole ! and thou | dost see them set. 

Alone, in thy cold skies, 
Thou keep'st thy old unmoving station yet, 



378 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Nor join'st the dances | of that glittering train, 

Nor dipp'st thy virgin orb | in the blue western main. 

4. 
There, at morn's rosy birth, 
Thou lookest meekly through the kindling air, 

And eve, that round the Earth | 
Chases the day, beholds thee | w&tching there; 
There | noontide finds the'e, and the hour that calls | 
The shapes of polar flame | to scale heaven's azure walls. 



Alike, beneath thine eye, 
The deeds of darkness | and of light | are done ; 

High toward the starlit sky | 
Towns blaze, the smoke of battle blots the Sun ; 
The night-storm on a thousand hills | is loud, 
And the strong wind of day | doth mingle sea and cloud. 

G. 
On thy unaltering blaze | 
The half-wrecked mariner, his compass lost, 

Fixes his steady gaze, 
And steers, undoubting, to the friendly coast ; 
And they who stray in perilous wastes, by night, 
Are glad when thou dost shine | to guide their footsteps 
right. 



7. 
And therefore | bards of old, 
Sages and hermits of the solemn wood. 

Did | in thy beams | behold | 
A beauteous type | of that unchanging good, 
That bright | eternal bdacon, by whose ray | 
The voyager of time | should shape his heedful way. 



Bryant 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 379 

22. THE AMERICAN FLAG. 

[To be read with declamatory and dramatic force, radical and 
thorough stress, and orotund quality.] 

1. When Freedom from her mountain height 

Unfurled her standard to the air, 
She tore the azure robe of night. 

And set the stars of glory there; 
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes 
The milky baldric of the skies, 
And striped its pure celestial white 
With streakings of the morning light ; 
Then, from his mansion in the sun, 
She called her eagle-bearer down, 
And gave into his mighty hand 
The symbol of her chosen land. 

2. Majestic monarch of the cloud ! 

Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, 
To hear the tempest-trumpings loud 

And see the lightning lances driven, 
When strive the warriors of the storm, 

And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven, — 
Child of the Sun ! to thee 'tis given 

To guard the banner of the free ; 
To hover in the sulphur-smoke, 
To ward away the battle-stroke, 
And bid its blen dings shine afar, 
Like rainbows on the cloud of war — 

The harbingers of victory ! 

3. Flag of the brave ! thy folds shall fly, 
The sign of hope and triumph high, 
When speaks the signal trumpet tone, 
And the long line comes gleaming on. 
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet, 
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet, 



380 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

Eacli soldier's eye shall brightly turn 
To where thy sky-born glories burn ; 
And, as his springing steps advance, 
Catch war and vengeance from the glance ; 
And, when the cannon-niouthings loud 
Heave in wild wreaths the battle-shroud, 
And gory sabres rise and fall 
Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall, 
Then shall thy meteor glances glow, 

And cowering foes shall fall beneath 
Each gallant arm that strikes below 

That lovely messenger of death. 

4. Flag of the seas ! on ocean's wave 
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave. 
When Death, careering on the crale, 
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail, 
And frighted waves rush wildly back, 
Before the broadside's reeling rack, 
Each dying wanderer of the sea 
Shall look at once to heaven and thee, 
And smile to see thy splendors fly, 

In triumph, o'er his closing eye. 

5. Flag of the free heart's only home, 

By angel hands to valor given, 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues were born in heaven. 
Forever float that standard sheet 1 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom's banner waving o'er us ! 

Dbakk 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 381 

23. THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. 

[The reading of this poem, should be characterized by slow movement, 
median stress, pure tone, and orotund quality. To be marked by the 
class for emphasis, inflection, and pauses.] f 

1. 

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, 

Sails the unshadowed main,— 

The venturous bark that flings 
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings 
In o'ulfs enchanted, where the siren sino-s, 

And coral reefs lie bare, 
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming- 
hair. 

2. 
Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; 

Wrecked is the ship of pearl ! 

And every chambered cell, 
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, 
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, 

Before thee lies revealed — 
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed ! 

3. 
Year after year beheld the silent toil 
That spread his lustrous coil ; 
Still, as the spiral grew, 
He left the past year's dwelling for the new, 
Stole with soft step its shining archway through, 

Built up its idle door, 
Stretched in his last found home, and knew the old no 
more. 

4. 
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, 
Child of the wandering sea, 
Cast from her lap forlorn ! 



382 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born 
Than ever Triton blew from wreathdd horn! 

While on my ear it rings, 
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that 
sings, — 

5. 
Build thee more stately mansions, my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll ! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea ! 

Holmes. 

24 KENTUCKY BELLE. 

1. 

Summer of 'sixty-three, sir, and Conrad was gone away, 
Gone to the county-town, sir, to sell our first load of hay ; 
We lived in the log-house yonder, poor as ever you Ve 

seen; 
Ptoschen there was a baby, and I was only nineteen. 

2. 

Conrad, he took the oxen, but he left Kentucky Belle. 

How much we thought of Kentuck, I couldn't begin to 
tell — 

Came from the Blue-Grass country; my father gave her 
to me 

When I rode north witli Conrad, away from the Ten- 
nessee. 

3. 

Conrad lived in Ohio, a German he is, you know; 

The house stood in broad cornfields, stretching on, row 
after row. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 383 

The old folks made me welcome ; they were kind as 
kind could be ; 

Bat I kept longing, longing, for the hills of the Ten- 
nessee. 

4. 
Oh ! for a sight of water, the shadowed slope of a hill ! 
Clouds that hang on the summit, a wind that never is 

still ! 
But the level land went stretching away to meet the 

sky, 
Never a rise, from north to south, to rest the weary eye ! 

5. 
From east to west, no river to shine out under the moon, 
Nothing to make a shadow in the yellow afternoon : 
Only the breathless sunshine, as I looked out, all forlorn ; 
Only the "rustle, rustle," as I walked among the corn. 

6. 

When I fell sick with pining, we did n't w T ait any more, 

But moved away from the corn-lands, out to this river- 
shore — 

The Tuscarawas it's called, sir: off there's a hill, you 
see ; 

And now I've grown to like it next best to the Ten- 
nessee. 

7. 
I was at work that morning. Some one came riding 

like mad 
Over the bridge and up the road — Farmer Houf's little 

lad. 
Bareback he rode ; he had no hat ; he hardly stopped 

to say, 
" Morgan's men are coming, Frau ; they 're galloping on 

this way. 



.84 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



"I'm sent to warn the neighbors. He isn't a mile 

behind ; 
He sweeps up all the horses — every horse that lie can 

find. 
Morgan, Morgan the raider, and Morgan's terrible men, 
With bowie-knives and pistols, are galloping up the 

glen ! " 

9. 
The lad rode down the valley, and I stood still at the 

door ; 
The baby laughed and prattled, played with spools on 

the floor; 
Kentuck was out in the pasture; Conrad, my man, was 

gone. 
Near, nearer, Morgan's men were galloping, galloping on ! 

10. 
Sudden I picked up baby, and ran to the pasture-bar ; 
" Kentuck ! " I called — " Kentucky ! M She knew me ever 

so far ! 
I led her down the gully that turns off there to the right, 
And tied her to the bushes, her head just out of sight. 

1.1. 
As I ran back to the 1og[ house, at once there came a 

sound — 
The ring of hoofs, galloping hoofs, trembling over the 

ground — 
Coming into the turnpike out from the White-Woman 

Glen, 
Morgan, Morgan the raider, and Morgan's terrible men. 

12. 
As near they drew and nearer, my heart beat fast in 
alarm ; 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 385 

But still I stood in the door-way, with baby on my arm. 
They came ; they passed ; with spur and whip in haste 

they sped along — 
Morgan, Morgan the raider, and his baud, six hundred 

strong. 

13. 
Weary they looked and jaded, riding through night and 

through day; 
Pushing on east to the river, many long miles away, 
To the border-strip where Virginia runs up into the west, 
And fording the Upper Ohio before they could stop to rest. 

14. 

On like the wind they hurried, and Morgan rode in 

advance ; 
Bright were his eyes like live coals, as he gave me a 

sideways glance; 
And I was just breathing freely, after my choking pain, 
When the last one of the troopers suddenly drew his rein. 

15. 
Frightened I was to death, sir; 1 scarce dared look in 

his face, 
As he asked for a drink of water, and glanced around 

the place. 
I gave him a cup, and he smiled — 'twas only a boy, 

you see ; 
Faint and worn, with dim-blue eyes; and he'd sailed 

on the Tennessee. 

16. 
Only sixteen he was, sir — a fond mother's only son — 
Off and away with Morgan before his life had begun! 
The damp drops stood on his temples; drawn was the 

boyish mouth; 
And I thought me of the mother waiting down in the 

South. 

as 



386 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

17. 

Oh ! pluck was he to the backbone, and clear grit through 
and through ; 

Boasted and bragged like a trooper ; but the big words 
w 7 ould n't do ; — 

The boy was dying, sir, dying, as plain as plain could be, 

Worn out by his ride with Morgan up from the Ten- 
nessee. 

18. 
But when I told the laddie that I too was from the 

South, 
Water came in his dim eyes, and quivers around his 

mouth. 
" Do you know the Blue-Grass country ? " he wistful 

began to say; 
Then swayed like a willow T -sapling, and fainted dead 

away. 

19. 

I had him into the log house, and worked and brought 

him to ; 
I fed him, and I coaxed him, as I thought his mother \l 

do; 
And when the lad got better, and the noise in his head 

was gone, 
Morgan's men were miles away, galloping, galloping on. 

20. 
"Oh, I must go," he muttered; "I must be up and away ! 
Morgan — Morgan is waiting for me ! Oh, what will 

Morgan say ? " 
But I heard a sound of tramping and kept him back 

from the door — 
The ringing sound of horses' hoofs that I had heard 

before. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 387 

21. 

And on, on, came the soldiers — the Michigan cavalry — 
And fast they rode, and black they looked, galloping 

rapidly — 
They had followed hard on Morgan's track ; they had 

followed day and night ; 
But of Morgan and Morgan's raiders they never had 

caught a si edit. 

22. 
And rich Ohio sat startled through all those summer 

days ; 
For. strange, wild men were galloping over her broad 

highways — 
Now here, now there, now seen, now gone, now north, 

now east, now west, 
Through river-valleys and corn-land farms, sweeping 

away her best. 

23. 
A bold ride and a long ride ! But they were taken at 

last. 
They almost reached the river by galloping hard and fast ; 
But the boys in blue were upon them ere ever they 

gained the ford, 
And Morgan, Morgan the raider, laid down his terrible 

sword. 

24. 

Well, I kept the boy till evening — kept him against 
his will — 

But he was too weak to follow, and sat there pale and 
still. 

When it was cool and dusky — you 11 wonder to hear 
me tell — 

But I stole down to that gully, and brought up Ken- 
tucky Belle. 



388 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

25. 

I kissed the star on ber forehead — my pretty, gentle 
lass — 

But I knew that she 'd be happy back in the old Blue- 
Grass. 

A suit of clothes of Conrad's with all the money I had, 

And Kentuck, pretty Kentuck, I gave to the worn-out 
lad. 

26. 

I guided him to the southward as well as I knew how ; 

The boy rode off with many thanks, and many a back- 
ward bow ; 

And then the glow it faded, and my heart began to 
swell, 

As clown the glen away she Avent, my lost Kentucky 
Belle ! 

27. 

When Conrad came in the evening, the moon was shin- 
ing high ; 

Baby and I both were crying — I could n't tell him 
why— 

But a battered suit of rebel gray was hanging on the 
wall, 

And a thin, old horse with drooping head, stood in 
Kentucky's stall. 

28. 
Well, he was kind, and never once said a hard word to 

me ; 
He knew I could n't help it — 't was all for the Tennessee. 
But, after the Avar Avas over, just think what came to 

pass — 
A letter, sir ; and the two Avere safe back in the old 

Blue-Grass. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 389 

29. 
The lad got over the border, riding Kentucky Belle; 
And Kentuck she was thriving, and fat, and hearty, and 

well ; 
He cared for her and kept her, nor touched her with 

whip or spur. 
Ah ! we 've had many horses since, but never a horse 

like her ! 

Constance F. Woolson. 



25. THE CHAECOAL MAK 

1. Though rudely blows the wintry blast, 
And sifting snows fall white and fast, 
Mark Haley drives along the street, 
Perched high upon his wagon seat; 
His somber face the storm defies, 

And thus from morn till eve lie cries, — 

"Chared! chared!''' 
While echo faint and for replies, — 

"Hark, Of Hark, Of" 
" Chared ! " — " Hark, ! " — Such cheery sounds 
Attend him on his daily rounds. 

2. The dust begrimes his ancient hat; 
His coat is darker far than that ; 
'T is odd to see his sooty form 

All speckled with the feathery storm ; 

Yet in his honest bosom lies 

Nor spot nor speck, — though still he cries, — 

" Chared/ chared/ " 
And many a roguish lad replies, — 

" Ark, ho ! ark, ho ! " 
" Chared ! " — " Ark, ho / " — Such various sounds 
Announce Mark Haley's morning rounds. 



390 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

3. Thus all the cold and wintry day 
He labors much for little pay; 
Yet feels no less of happiness 
Than many a richer man, I guess, 
When through the shades of eve he spies 
The light of his own home, and cries, — 

" Chared! chared! " 
And Martha from the door replies,— 

"MarJc, ho! Mark, ho!" 
" Chared! "—Marie, ho ! "—Such joy abounds 
When he has closed his daily rounds. 

4. The hearth is warm, the fire is bright; 

And while his hand, washed clean and white, 
Holds Martha's tender hand once more, 
His glowing face bends fondly o'er 
The crib wherein his darling lies, 
And in a coaxing tone he cries, 

" Chared! chared! " 
And baby with a laugh replies, — 

" Ah, go ! ah, go ! " 
" Chared! "— " Ah, go ! "—while at the sounds 
The mother's heart with gladness bounds. 

5. Then honored be the charcoal man ! 
Though dusky as an African, 
'Tis not for you, that chance to be 
A little better clad than he, 
His honest manhood to despise, 
Although from morn till eve he cries, — 

" Chared! chared! " 
While mocking echo still replies, — 

-Hark, 0! hark, ! " 
"Chared!"— "Hark, 0/"— Long may the sounds 
Proclaim Mark Haley's daily rounds, Trowbridge. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 391 

26. GEANDMOTHEE'S STOEY OF BU^KEE HILL. 

[The spirited rendering of this graphic picture affords a wide scope 
for variety of expression. Care must be taken not to overdo it.] 

1. 

'Tis like stirring living embers when, at eighty, one 

remembers 
All the achings and the quakings of "the times that 

tried men's souls"; 
When I talk of Whig and Tory, when I tell the Rebel 

story, 
To you the words are ashes, but to me they're burning 

coals. 

2. 
I had heard the muskets' rattle of the April running 

battle ; 
Lord Percy's hunted soldiers, I can see their red coats 

still ; 
But a deadly chill comes o'er me, as the day looms up 

before me, 
When a thousand men lay bleeding on the slopes of 

Bunker's Hill. 

o 
O. 

'T was a peaceful summer's morning, when the first 

thing gave us warning 
Was the booming of the cannon from the river and the 

shore : 
"Child," says grandma, "what's the matter, what is all 

this noise and clatter ? 
Have those scalping Indian devils come to murder us 

once more ? " 

4. 
Poor old soul ! my sides were shaking in the midst of 

all my quaking, 
To hear her talk of Indians when the <mns beo-an to roar: 

o o 



3\)A SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

She had seen the burning village, and the slaughter 

and the pillage, 
When the Mohawks killed her father with their bullets 

through his door. 

5. 
Then I said, " Now, dear old granny, do n't you fret and 

worry any, 
For I'll soon come back and tell you whether this is 

work or play; 
There can't be mischief in it, so I won't be "one a 

minute " — 
For a minute then I started. I was gone the livelong 

day. 

No time for bodice-lacing or for looking-glass grimacing ; 
Down my hair went as I hurried, tumbling half-way 

to my heels ; 
God forbid your ever knowing, when there 's blood 

around her flowing, 
How the lonely, helpless daughter of a quiet household 

feels ! 

7. 
In the street I heard a thumping; and I knew it was 

the stumping 
Of the Corporal, our old neighbor, on that wooden leg 

he w r ore, 
With a knot of women round him, — it was lucky I had 

found him, 
So I followed with the others, and the Corporal marched 

before. 



They were making for the steeple, — the old soldier am 
Ids people: 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 393 

The pigeons circled round us as we climbed the creak- 
ing stair, 

Just across the narrow river — 0, so close it made me 
shiver ! — 

Stood a fortress on the hill-top that but yesterday was 
bare. 

9. 

Not slow our eyes to find it ; well we knew who stood 
behind it, 

Though the earthwork hid them from us, and the stub- 
born walls were dumb : 

Here were sister, wife, and mother, looking wild upon 
each other, 

And their lips were white with terror as they said, The 

HOUR HAS COME ! 

10. 

The morning slowly wasted, not a morsel had we 

tasted, -. 
And our heads were almost splitting with the cannons' 

deafening thrill, 
When a figure tall and stately round the rampart strode 

sedately ; 
It was Prescott, one since told me; he commanded on 

the hill. 

11. 

Every woman's heart grew bigger when we saw his 

manly figure, 
With the banyan buckled round it, standing up so 

straight and tall ; 
Like a gentleman of leisure who is strolling out for 

pleasure, 
Through the storm of shells and cannon-shot he walked 

around the wall. 



394 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 



12. 

yen 
ranks were forminj 



At eleven the streets were swarming, for the red-coats' 



At noon in marching order they were moving to the piers ; 

How the bayonets gleamed and glistened, as we looked 
far down and listened 

To the tramping and the drum-beat cf the belted gren- 
adiers ! 

13. 

At length the men have started, with a cheer (it seemed 

faint-hearted), 
In their scarlet regimentals, with their knapsacks on 

their backs, 
And the reddening rippling water, as after a sea-fight's 

slaughter, 
Bound the barses eliding onward blushed like blood 

o o o 

along their tracks. 

14. 

So they crossed to the other border, and again they 

formed in order; 
And the boats came back for soldiers, came for soldiers, 

soldiers still : 
The time seemed everlasting to us women faint and 

fasting, — 
At last they 're moving, marching, marching proudly up 

the hill. 

15. 

We can see the bright steel glancing all along the lines 

advancing — 
Now the front rank fire a volley — they have thrown 

away their shot; 
For behind their earthwork lying, all the balls above 

them Hying, 
Our people need not hurry ; so they wait aud answer not. 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 395 

16. 

Then the Corporal, our old cripple (he would swear some- 
times and tipple), — 

He had heard the bullets whistle (in the old French 
war) before, — 

Calls out in words of jeering, just as if they all were 
hearing, — 

And his wooden leg thumps fiercely on the dusty belfry 
floor : — 

17. 

" Oh ! fire away, ye villains, and earn King George's 

shillin's, 
But ye '11 w T aste a ton of powder afore a ' rebel ' falls ; 
You may bang the dirt and welcome, they 're as safe as 

Dan'l Malcolm 
Ten feet beneath the gravestone that you 've splintered 

with your balls!" 

18. 

In the hush of expectation, in the awe and trepidation 
Of the dread approaching moment, we are wellnigh 

breathless all ; 
Though the rotten bars are failing on the rickety belfry 

railing, 
We are crowding up against them like the weaves against 

a wall. 

19. 

Just a glimpse (the air is clearer), they are nearer, — 

nearer, — nearer, 
When a flash — a curling smoke-wreath — then a crash — 

the steeple shakes — 
The deadly truce is ended; the tempest's shroud is 

rended ; 
Like a morning mist it gathered, like a thunder-cloud 

it breaks ! 



396 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

20. 
the sight our eyes discover as the blue-black smoke 

blows over ! 
The red-coats stretched in windrows as a mower rakes 

his hay ; 
Here a scarlet heap is lying, there a headlong crowd is 

flying 
Like a billow that has broken and is shivered into 

spray. 

21. 

Then we cried, " The troops are routed ! they are beat — 

it can't be doubted ! 
God be thanked, the fight is over 1 " — Ah ! the grim old 

soldier's smile ! 
" Tell us, tell us why you look so ? " (we could hardly 

speak, we shook so), — 
"Are they beaten ? Are they beaten ? Are they beaten ?" 

—"Wait a while." 

22. 
O the trembling and the terror ! for too soon we saw 

our error : 
They are baffled, not defeated ; we have driven them 

back in vain, 
And the columns that were scattered, round the colors 

that were tattered, 
Toward the sullen silent fortress turn their belted breasts 

again. 

23. 

All at once, as we are imzin^, lo the roofs of Charles- 

town blazing ! 
They have fired the harmless village ; in an hour it will 

be down ; 
The Lord in heaven confound them, rain his lire anil 

brimstone round them. — 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 397 

The robbing, murdering red-coats that would burn a 
peaceful town ! 

24. 

They are marching, stern and solemn; we can see each 
massive column 

As they near the naked earth-mound with the slanting- 
walls so steep. 

Have our soldiers got faint-hearted, and in noiseless 
haste departed ? 

Are they panic-struck and helpless ? Are they palsied 
or asleep ? 

25. 

Now ! the walls they 're almost under ! scarce a rod the 
foes asunder ! 

Not a firelock flashed against them ! up the earthwork 
they will swarm ! 

But the w r ords have scarce been spoken, when the omi- 
nous calm is broken, 

And a bellowing crash has emptied all the vengeance 
of the storm ! 

26. 
So again, with murderous slaughter, pelted backwards 

to the water, 
Fly Pigot's running heroes and the frightened braves 

of Howe; 
And we shout, " At last they 're done for, it 's their 

barges they have run for : 
They are beaten, beaten, beaten ; and the battle 's over 

now T !" 

27. 
And we looked, poor timid creatures, on the rough old 

soldier's features, 
Our lips afraid to question, but he knew what we would 

ask: 



398 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

" Not sure," he said ; " keep quiet, — once more, I guess, 

they '11 try it — 
Here 's damnation to the cut-throats ! "—then he handed 

me his flask, 

28. 
Saying, "Gal, yon 're looking shaky; have a drop of 

old Jamaiky ; 
1 'm afeard there '11 be more trouble afore the job is 

done ; " 
So I took one scorching swallow; dreadful faint I felt 

and hollow, 
Standing there from early morning when the firing was 

begun. 

29. 

All through those hours of trial I had watched a calm 
clock-dial, 

As the hands kept creeping, creeping,— they were creep- 
ing round to four, 

When the old man said, " They 're forming with their 
bagonets fixed for storming : 

It's the death-grip that's a coming,— they will try the 
works once more." 

30. 

With brazen trumpets blaring, the flames behind them 
glaring, 

The deadly wall before them, in close array they come ; 

Still onward, upward toiling, like a dragon's fold un- 
coiling, — 

like the rattlesnake's shrill warning the reverberating 

drum ! 

31. 
Over heaps all torn and gory— shall I tell the fearful 
story, 



SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 399 

How they surged above the breastwork, as a sea breaks 
o'er a deck ; 

How, driven, yet scarce defeated, our worn-out men re- 
treated, 

With their powder-horns all emptied, like the swimmers 
from a wreck? 

32. 
It has all been told and painted; as for me, they say 

I fainted, 
And the wooden-legged old Corporal stumped with me 

down the stair : 
When I woke from dreams affrighted, the evening lamps 

were lighted, — 
On the floor a youth was lying; his bleeding breast 

was bare. 

33. 
And I heard through all the flurry, "Send for Waeeen! 

hurry! hurry! 
Tell him here's a soldier bleeding, and he 11 come and. 

dress his wound ! " 
Ah, we knew not till the morrow told its tale of death 

and sorrow, 
How the starlight found him stiffened on the dark and 

bloody ground. 

34 

Who the youth was, what his name was, where the 

place from which he came was, 
Who had brought him from the battle, and had left 

him at our door, 
He could not speak to tell us ; but 't was one of our 

brave fellows, 
As the homespun plainly showed us which the dying 

soldier wore. 



400 SCHOOL ELOCUTION. 

35. 

For they all thought he was dying, as they gathered 

round him crying, — 
And they said, " 0, how they '11 miss him I" and, " What 

to ill his mother do ? " 
Then, his eyelids just unclosing like a child's that has 

been dozing, 
He faintly murmured, "Mother!" — and — I saw his eyes 

were blue. 

36.. 
— " Why, grandma, how you 're winking ! " — Ah, my child, 

it sets me thinking 
Of a story not like this one. Well, he somehow lived 

along ; 
So we came to know each other, and I nursed him like 

a — mother, 
Till at last he stood before me, tall, and rosy-cheeked. 

and strong. 

37. 

And we sometimes walked together in the pleasant sum- 
mer weather ; 

— " Please to tell us what his name was ? " — Just your 
own, my little dear, 

There 's his picture Copley painted : we became so well 
acquainted, 

That — in short, that's why I'm grandma, and you chil- 
dren all are here! holmes. 



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